ct being to study the history and geography of the
country. Seven years later it had entered on the gigantic task of
surveying a tract of about 6,000 square miles, much of it desert or
mountainous country.

Kitchener was just graduating from the Military Academy, with the usual
rank of lieutenant, and was casting about for active service. He could
not brook the idea of settling down to garrison life. The post of
assistant to the leader of this Palestine Expedition was offered him,
and he accepted with alacrity. While a private enterprise, it had the
sanction of the War Department, and promised to provide thrills as well
as work. The fact that it was the Holy Land of Bible story also
appealed to Kitchener. Witness one of the first entries in his Journal:

"Looking down on the broad plain of Esdraelon . . . it is impossible
not to remember that this is the greatest battlefield of the world,
from the days of Joshua and the defeat of the mighty hosts of Sisera,
till, almost in our own days, Napoleon the Great fought the battle of
Mount Tabor; and here also is the ancient Megiddo, where the last great
battle of Armageddon is to be fought."

Lieutenant Kitchener reported for duty in Palestine, in the Fall of
1874. The exploration party was then working in the hill country south
of Judah, which was still a sealed book to the rest of the world.
Their job was "to search in every hole and corner of the country and
see what is there, and classify everything in proper form"--to quote
the words of their prospectus. For this work they required both the
surveyor's instrument and the camera.

In the use of the latter, Kitchener had shown aptitude at school; and
it is said that this fact had something to do with his appointment. It
is evident from the first official report that he "made good." His
chief, Lieutenant Conder, states that he succeeded in securing some
excellent photographs "under peculiarly unfavorable circumstances."

The climate did not set well with him at first, and after two attacks
of fever he recovered his health sufficiently to take part in the Dead
Sea work of 1875.

At Wady Seiyal, reports Conder, "we were caught in the most tremendous
gale which we have yet experienced in tents; and our next march of
nineteen miles in a perfect hurricane of bitter wind, with showers of
sleet and hail, necessitated by the fact that all our barley and other
stores were consumed, was the hardest bit of experience we