average of over one thousand men sailed daily from Great Britain or
Ireland for the seat of war.

Some illustrations of the capacity of great ocean steamers for such
service may also be interesting. Thus the "Cymric" carried a brigade
division of artillery, 18 guns, 36 wagons, 351 officers and men, 430
horses, with all the ammunition and impedimenta, besides a battalion
of infantry; in all nearly 1,600 men. Another, the "Kildonan Castle,"
took on an average 2,700 officers and men, on each of three voyages.
The greatest number in any one trip was by the "Bavarian"--2,893.

In effect, although embarkation was not wholly confined to the great
shipping ports, the vast majority of the vessels sailed from
Southampton, the Thames, and the Mersey. At each of these was
stationed a captain on the active list of the Navy, representing the
Director of Transports at the Admiralty, and having under him a
numerous staff of sea officers, engineers and clerks, by whom the
work {p.096} of equipment, inspecting, and despatching was
supervised. After sailing, the vigilant eye of the Transport
Department still followed them by further provision of local officials
at foreign and colonial ports, and by the network of submarine
telegraphs which has so singularly modified and centralised the
operations of modern war. At Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, and at
St. Vincent in the Cape de Verde, the intermediate coaling ports, a
ship of war was kept always after October, the captains of which
watched over the transports, cabling arrivals and departures, deciding
questions of coal requirement, repairs, delays, and generally, no
doubt, discharging the function noted by the midshipman, who explained
that he must be going because he saw the first lieutenant's glass was
turned his way.

At Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban were other local
representatives--naval captains with staffs similar to those of the
home ports--so that, to use a phrase of the Director of Transports,
the ships were "well shepherded." It was, in fact, much the position
of a man who with ten fingers manipulates {p.097} the several keys of
a piano. If the end crowns the work it may be said, although the end
is not quite yet, that the work of transportation has been crowned. No
loss of human life by preventable cause has occurred, nor has
complaint been heard of serious hitch of any kind. The numbers speak
for themselves.

The carriage of animals necessary for an army of