244 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

and with a convenient post or tree to lean against, or with a rail or a bank to sit on, he enjoys the assertion of his dress, of his momentary freedom from restraint, and feels that he has, for the time being, retired into private life, where care cannot reach him till the next bugle-call."

At night there was usually a great fall in the thermometer, and the one blanket supplied to the men was not too much — especially as no stimulant was supplied, and there was no regimental canteen as there is at home, while the poor peasants on the banks had nothing to sell but a cup or two of goat's milk, which they could ill spare.

The dangers of the voyage were illustrated by an accident to a boat containing a number of the Sussex regiment in command of Lieutenant Crawford. It was in full sail when it ran on a sunken rock and split open. The boat was alone, and the stream wide at this point; the officer in command fired near a hundred rounds to attract attention, but some time elapsed before another nuggar could be brought to his assistance, and in this interval of time two men were drowned. Of the 40 men on board very few could swim — and the Nile current is dangerous even to the most powerful swimmers. Lieutenant Crawford insisted on the men sticking to the boat, as long as she held together, and having managed to attract the attention of Captain Powell, who was in another nuggar half a mile off, he was able to save all except the two mentioned. The wrecked boat went to pieces as soon as the men could be got on board Captain Powell's nuggar; and rifles, ammunition, stores, and kits were all lost.

On arriving at Dal, Major Gough was met by Sir H. Stewart and his staff. General Stewart had started from Sarras on horseback with little or no baggage, and had ridden for a day and a half, covering a distance of 40 miles. The road from Sarras was so roueh that from the time of their start until their arrival at Dal, the commander and his party had been unable to get anything beyond a walk out of their beasts. General Sir H. Stewart, however, being determined to push on, resisted for the time being Major Gough's invitations to him to leave his horses and join the