THE "SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. 22 transport service above the cataract, and other boats were on the way. On the 29th seven steamers had got well over the first cataracts, and the Nile was rising; there were 2000 labourers sent from Dongola at Wady Haifa for assisting in the portage and haulage work at the cataracts. These with 400 camels, collected by the mudir, required considerable supplies of food and forage, both of which were slow in arriving till a consignment of biscuit and forage vfas forwarded by special train from Cairo. There was fortunately a good crop of dates and a fair supply of barley in the district. The mudir had gone to Dongola, whither the first contingent of troops with stores and provisions were pushed, and on the 27th the river had reached a point where steamers might be hauled over the second cataract.

At Assiout were the means ot transport at that time provided, namely, steamboats, dayabeeahs, and barges, the two latter requiring to be towed. Of the barges there were a lare number on the Nile, previously used for conveying coal to the sugar plantations and pumping stations, for carrying labourers, and for transporting machinery, produce, and troops. They were about 1 20 feet long, with a beam of eight feet, and the same depth; they were decked and floored below, leaving seven feet between. Being flatbottomed they drew little water, and were well adapted for the transport of men or material on the navigable portions of the river. The passage from Assiout to Assouan would, it was calculated, take a steamer towing six such barges from eight to twelve days; a steamboat without incumbrance occupying from four to six days.

From the commencement of the expedition it became evident that the general in command had great objections to the presence of special correspondents even of the leading newspapers and journals with the forces on the Nile. There had been some complaints on the part of correspondents during the former campaign lor the suppression of Arabi's rebellion, and it was generally understood that General Wolseley expected all communications sent by telegraph from newspaper correspondents to be first submitted to headquarters, where they might be considerably revised, or rather abridged. The reasons alleged for this Vol. III. 51