whose western
extremity we now were, runs most of the way across the top of the
Peninsula, and is believed to have been the famous Serbonian Bog of the
Classics. In places its surface gleams white with salt crystals,
covering a mass of hard irregular lumps said to be formed of gypsum,
which makes walking almost impossible. Further inland, smaller marshes
were often met with, and a hole dug in them soon filled with bitter
water, quite undrinkable, but valuable to wash away the sand. South of
the great Sabkhet, the everlasting sand ridges began again, spotted with
clumps and low bushes of scrub, and rising in the distance to pure
yellow hills entirely without vegetation.

A mile or so to the east of our outpost line, the permanent defences
were being constructed by the Egyptian Labour Corps, now recruited to do
the sand shovelling, which had fallen to our lot at Kantara. Every
morning bands of blue-clad gippies moved out from their lairs behind us,
in rough, very rough, military formation, singing their doubtless
primeval but rather idiotic chants, laughing, shouting, and generally
enjoying life in a way which we admired, but could not imitate. Arrived
at their redoubts they shovelled and sand-bagged away under the
direction of the versatile R.E., with a rest during the hottest part of
the day, until the evening saw their equally noisy and cheerful return
to camp. We were glad they enjoyed it, but felt no envious desire to
share their labours with them.

In spite of the breeze off the sea the weather remained extremely hot.
Heavy dews often fell at night, causing mist at dawn, which forced the
outpost companies to stand to arms for an extra hour or more; on July
13th we indignantly stood to from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. for this reason. When
the sun was well up, there came the most trying part of the day, while
the dew-laden atmosphere was drying. The temperature rose till the
thermometer inside the tents registered anything from 95 deg. to 110 deg., but
the heat became less oppressive when the moisture had vanished from the
air. What training we did was reserved whenever possible for the
evening, and even so it was hard work. An entry in the War Diary reads,
"14/7/16. 1700 to 1930. Battalion Route March towards Romani over heavy
sand. Distance under four miles, but men much fatigued!" Four miles in
two and a half hours gives some idea of the nature of the going, and
there was no extra tot of water to be issued on return to cam