TASSAGE OF THE "GREAT GATE. 24 1.

natives on shore in the course of tracking a ship's boat, the steamer passed the Bab-el- Kebir, or Great Gate, a narrow passage some 50 yards long and at its widest part 34 feet across. On either side are hipti rocks between which the water boils and surges down an incline of 1 foot in 10 feet, ending with an actual fall of about 5 feet. In this passage the steamer's paddles would, of course, be useless, so they were removed — and it was necessary to trust entirely to the wire cable round the steamer, to the 8-inch hempen hawsers which were to track her, and to the good-will and energy of the 3000 natives who were to do the actual work of hauling. This work was accomplished, however, much to the joy of these labourers, who, as the steamer was brought to the top of the channel and into calm water, shouted, danced, clapped their hands, flung themselves on the ground, and even jumped into the water and paddled round the vessel to relieve their excitement or to manifest their delight.

Of course the passage from Assiout to Assouan and, even after the first cataract, to Wady Haifa was an entirely different affair, and to General Earle and his staff, who had the khedive's superb yacht placed at their disposal, and to many others who went by the ordinary Nile boat, the journey was pleasant enough. There was an evident desire to get promptly to the front, and Sir Herbert Stewart had been sent to Dongola to take the command there. The real difficulties began at Wady Haifa. The seven miles of railway round the first cataract at Assouan was in pretty good order, and it was correspondingly easy to forward men, horses, and stores from Alexandria to Wady Haifa; but the thirtythree miles of rail from Wadv Haifa to Sarras was a ric.ketv affair.

Trains broke down and blocked the traffic, the lines caved in, or some other cause of delay occurred repeatedly. But by the 25th of September some of the Royal Sussex men and the mounted infantry, with three months' provisions, were already at Dongola, and the remainder were well on their way in the native boats sent to Sarras by the mudir, in which they had been embarked by Major Sandwith, acting under the orders of Sir Evelyn Wood. The first contingents from Cairo were able to get on by the same Vol. III. 02