194 The British Campaign in the Soudan.

that ignorance of the geography, topography, and water supply of the Soudan routes was absolutely inexcusable, especially in a military staff whose first duty was to learn these very things.

There are three routes from Cairo to Khartoum. (See the map.)

I. By the Nile to Korosko, crossing the desert and striking the Nile again at Abou-Hamed.

II. By the Nile all the way on or along the river.

III. By Suez and the Red Sea to Suakim. Thence across the desert to Berber, and thence to Khartoum by the river.

Let us examine them in order.

I. The first follows the Nile to Korosko, 690 miles above Cairo and 100 miles below the second cataract. Here’it leaves the river and strikes across the great’ bend of the Nile. It is 500 miles shorter than the all-river route, but, although one of the most frequented by caravans, it must be ruled out of military operations, for it crosses one of the worst deserts in the Soudan, consisting of hard gravel plains diversified with zones of deep sand and rocky ridges, without a bush or blade of grass. The camels, which find some grazing on other deserts, have to carry grain on their backs for their own consumption on this one. It is 250 miles across, with only one well— half way—so scanty that it can supply only some 400 camels per day, and so brackish that its name is Moora— bitter, None but camels and Bedouins can drink its water. Caravans of 100 or 200 camels cross this desert by forced marches, as I did, in seven days, carrying drinking water to last from Nile to Nile, but no European army could cross it at all. Meeting the river again at 4