OMDUKMAN 223 to the front to encourage the infantry. Seeing how persistently they were coming on, the Sirdar ordered the men of Lyttleton’s brigade to open fire at long range. The Grenadiers were the first to begin, firing volleys in sections. The other regiments of the brigade were soon hard at it, but neither they nor the Maxims appeared to be doing serious execution, while the terrible effect of the shell fire could really be seen. But although great numbers of the enemy were killed or wounded by the bursting shells, there was no halt in the forward movement.

Suddenly over the crest and sides of the Surgham Hill the division of the Dervish right, reinforced by a portion of Yacoub’s division, appeared, and over fifteen thousand men came streaming down the hill waving banners and shouting their war-cries. They were led by their emirs on horseback, but the infantry kept pace with these, occasionally discharging their rifles at random. The guns of the three batteries and one of the Maxims were swung round and opened upon them. They were less than a mile away, and the whole of Gatacre’s division opened a terrific fire. Still the Dervishes held on, leaving the ground they passed over white with fallen men. From seventeen hundred yards the sights had to be lowered rapidly, but at a thousand yards they held their foe. Ho man could cross the ground swept by the hail of balls. So rapid and sustained was the fire that men had to retire to refill their pouches from the reserve ammunition, and the rifles were so heated that they could no longer be held. In some cases the men changed their weapons for those of the companies in reserve, in others these companies closed up and took the places of the front line. Hot for a moment was there any cessation in the fire. Unable to do more, YacouUs men moved towards the front and joined the main body, whose advance had been checked by the fire of Maxwell’s Egyptian brigade. A few rounds had been fired by the three cannon that the Khalifa had brought out with him, but they all fell short. On our side