FROM CAIRO TO THE ATBARA 25

almost the only outward and visible signs of

the past season, with its crowded fable d héte,

the vulgar chatter of American globe-trotters, and the irritating atmosphere of valetudin-

arianism.

At the hotel we met two hard-worked trans- port officers, Captain Hall and Lieutenant Delavoy, busied night and day with the incessant despatch. of stores and ammunition

to the front. People are often apt to forget

to what an extent the success of a campaign

is due to the honest work of the Army Service Corps and transport officials. Upon these departmental troops fell the onerous labour of forwarding for many weeks all the stores © required for the feeding of some twenty-three thousand men and several thousand animals.

Our recent campaigns in the Sudan have been unique in military history from the fact

that the army’s line of communication with

its base was ultimately over twelve hundred miles in length. Every ounce of food, with

the exception of a little fresh meat occasionally

obtained along the line of march, had to be conveyed from Cairo by river, rail, or camel. The best thanks of the public are due to the