SURVEYING BY MOONLIGHT. 75 It was a novel and pleasant sensation going ahead of the column in the quiet moonlit desert, not a sound being made by the two thousand camels in rear as their padded feet passed over the sand.

By-and-by the men got sleepy, and their laughter and talking grew fainter and fainter, till at last it ceased altogether. I got desperately sleepy myself, and beastly cold, altogether not in a very fit state for surveying ; however, I kept awake by a great effort, and took copious notes to keep warm. Ever and again came a faint bugle sound from the rear, intimating that the baggagers were lagging ; the sound was passed on from bugler to bugler, and the order given to halt the column till the rearguard came up.

Sometimes when several camels' loads had slipped and the rear-guard halted till they were fixed again, the halt would last twelve or fifteen minutes ; so in that case I made a note of the exact hour, slipped off my camel, and went fast asleep till the " advance" woke me up again. I thus timed every halt accurately, the only way it was possible to check the distance gone, allowing exactly two and three-quarter