190 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

The army of occupation in Egypt consisted of one cavalry regiment (19th Hussars), eight and a half battalions of the line, five batteries of the royal artillery, two companies of the royal engineers, one company of the ordnance store corps, and detachments of the commissariat and transport and army hospital corps. There were then only about 7000 men under General Stephenson ready for active service, some of the regiments being rather weak owing to invalids, loss of time-expired men, &c. Drafts were, however, ordered for the purpose of reinforcing these corps up to regulation strength, Colonel Duncan, who commanded the troops in Upper Egypt and stationed at Assouan, had his force increased, so that they consisted of a regiment of cavalry, two camel batteries, ten guns of position, five battalions of infantry, a camel corps, and some mounted infantry, the whole belonging to the army of Sir Evelyn Wood, who was to visit Assouan, while on the completion of the defensive works there, Colonel Duncan was to move forward to take personal command of the advanced posts at Korosko and Wady Haifa. About 1500 friendly Arabs, under Major Kitchener and Major Russell acted as outposts to this force at Korosko, with desert parties towards Abu Hamed and the Red Sea.

On the 23d of May it was said here that preparations were being made at Woolwich for sending a pontoon equipment to Egypt for the service of the expedition to Khartum, and the royal engineers were required to furnish a troop of officers and men well skilled in the construction of bridges, to take charge of the pontoon train in the journey up the Nile. Several improvements in the construction and conveyance of pontoons had been effected at the royal arsenal, and all parts of the carriage upon which they were packed, as well as the floats themselves, were contrived so as to be of use in crossing the rivers and streams which might intercept the march of an army. At the commissariat storehouse extra labour had been engaged, and the soldier-workmen were actively employed in packing provisions of all kinds in boxes and barrels of not more than 200 lbs. weight each, according to the invariable