for----

On Monday, 22nd August, the batteries again got away before the
Lancers, starting at 3.30 and four a.m. The day's march was to Agaba,
about twenty-six miles, and the next day's about nineteen to Wad
Habeshi. Wady Hamed, which is nearer Jebel Atshan, was where one of
Gordon's steamers, the "Tal Howeiya," returning with Sir Charles
Wilson's party, was wrecked on 29th January 1885. Making a detour into
the desert on quitting Abu Kru, I left Colonel Martin's column, and
rode on with one native servant to Wady Hamed. As a matter of fact,
the camp was neither at Wad Habeshi nor Wady Hamed, but between the
two. The latter, however, was the official name. But that my man was
very apprehensive of meeting patrolling dervishes, I would have ridden
direct across country, starting from a point opposite Nasri Island,
where the depot of supplies was. On the pretext of watering the horses
he got me back to the river. The consequence was that I rode over
fifty miles on Monday. However, I managed to reach Wady Hamed before
sunset. On my way in I met the Sirdar, out, as usual, on an inspecting
tour. He was good enough to greet me kindly and direct me to the
correspondents' camp; those of my comrades of the Press who voyaged by
steamer had just arrived. The new camp was an immense place over three
miles long. It was a zerebaed enclosure lying along the margin of the
Nile in a field of halfa-grass broken up with clumps of palms and
mimosa. The country all around was as a vast prairie. Beyond the reach
of the Nile's overflow the sand and loam was bare of vegetation. The
river was studded with scores of verdant islands, and to the south we
could see the peaks and ridges of Shabluka, through which the Nile,
when in flood, surges like a mill race between narrow rocky barriers.

CHAPTER VII.

WITH THE ARMY IN THE FIELD--WAD HAMID TO EL HEJIR.

Wad Hamid was a camp of magnificent distances, restful to the eyes but
distressful to the feet. The soil was rich loam, and at no remote date
had been mostly under cultivation. There were several pretty clumps of
dhoum palms, and a few scraggy mimosa by the river's margin. Of
tree-shade for the troops there was practically none. Much of the
thorny bush had been cut to form a zereba. In fact, there were two
zerebas, the British division having a dividing line between their
quarters and those of the Khedivial force. There was also a semblance
of cleared roadways about the camp, but the