GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 135 THE GAKOUL WELLS.— PASSING WATER DOWN FROM THE UPPER WELL, was astir betimes, and at eleveno'clockit defiled alonga rocky gorge into the crater-like amphitheatre where the Gakdul reservoirs are situated. Some more wells were to be found across the hills at a distanceof amileor two, but the three natural receptacles at Gakdul itself were computed to contain among them nearly half a million gallonsofwater, so that for militarypurposes the supply "was regarded as practically inexhaustible. The Guards andEngineers,whohadbeenleftatGakdul ontheoccasion of Sir Herbert Stewart's first visit,had notmerely built two forts of rough boulders, but they had also gathered the fragments of lime-stone, strewing the ground, into heaps, thus opening easyroads by which the column was atonce able to marchinto the amphitheatre and take up its quarters near the reservoirs. Along circular trough ofpuddledmud and stone had beenbuiltin front of the o-orge,and water was pumped into this from the lower pool, so that a hundred camelswere able to go forward and drink together. Nor werethe menneglected. Their drinking water was conveyed from the upper pools by a hose pipe worked on the principle of a syphon,and it flowed into a nest of empty tin biscuit boxes, where it was stored to be drawn from as required "The two days succeeding our arrival at Gakdul," observed the writer just quoted,"may be best described as drinking and washingdays. We feastedonfresh, clear,cold water, unadulterated. We gratified our eyes as well as our throats and stomachs, andhad the unaccustomed luxury of splashing and tubbing. Happydays! The aforetime silent soldiers, who had saved their breath to moisten their lips, now began to sing snatches of camp ditties, while newspirit andlife wereinfusedinto everybody."

Colonel Fred Burnaby, of Khiva andballooning fame, arrivedat Gakdul from Korti witha convoyof grain on January13. Hehadpreviouslybeen doingexcellentwork inpassingthe whalersthroughthe cataracts;andalthough not inthe bestof health— for his chest greatly troubled him— he had hastened forward to overtake the column. Thefollowing morning the march towardsthe Nile was resumed, onehundred and fifty men of the Royal Sussex, under Colonel Vandeleur, being left at Gakdul to hold that station while the Guards, who had previously pro-9 K