FROM KAYES TO TIMBUKTU 43 Is it an ideal equipage? or is it as bad as it is painted ? I do not venture to decide the question. The truth, perhaps, lies between the two extremes. On the one hand, these carts were always able to follow our troops in the Sudan ; but on the other, their intrinsic weight might very well be lessened. The chief advantage of metal rather than of wooden carts, is that they are watertight, and that when unloaded they can be floated across LOADING OUR CONVOV, streams or rivers, but as I have never seen a Lefebvre cart execute this manoeuvre, I feel a little sceptical about it still.

When the packages to be carried are small, compact, and about the same size and shape, it is easy enough to stow them away, but this was by no means the case with ours, and our large packages would be fearfully difficult to arrange and balance in the heavy metal carts.

On the 14th the mules arrived, some of which were to