e flamingo was to be found along the coast but have never
seen a specimen on this inhospitable shore. I have also seen a bird
not unlike a thrush, and a few small things apparently of the linnet
family. Creepy animals are only too plentiful, the most objectionable
at present is the common housefly which is a perfect plague. They are
everywhere and are specially fond of the rope suspending my lantern.
Unfortunately the place that is second favourite is one's nose.
Locusts are said to be in greater abundance in Lower Egypt than was
ever known before. Here I have seen but a few dozen, and at first I
took them for small dragonflies. They have the same beautiful wings,
but their style of flight is quite different, the locust alighting
every few yards to have a look at you. Ants, great and small, are
everywhere in the morning, but when the sand gets too hot most of them
disappear. One big ant has a huge head, a fairly broad tail piece and
small body. Lizards are very common on the chalk mounds, and yesterday
I watched four huge specimens basking in the sun half-way down an old
lime kiln.

_April 4th._--Easter Sunday. We had a service suitable for the day
from a Presbyterian Chaplain on the hillside, when there were 700 to
800 present from different units. During the sermon we all lay on the
sand, while overhead a lark carolled forth in notes more mild than are
uttered by our British lark, but the habits of the two are similar,
but ours soars highest.

We have improved our field mess, stores having been got privately
among us. By this means we had a very good one o'clock dinner,
followed by a snooze by some of us, while others slept straight on
till tea-time. I set out alone for a walk into a part I had not
visited before, namely, along the seashore west of Mex Camp, to
Dakeilah village. I passed an old fort with three very old cast-iron
guns of 9-inch bore, lying uselessly on their sides, one labelled
"loaded--dangerous". Beyond that the sand is a great depth, and the
natives seemed to have it divided into allotments, each piece dug into
a deep, wide trench from 6 to 12 feet deep, and along the bottom they
have a row of tomatoes. These grow luxuriantly, apparently in pure
sand, but there is probably a liberal supply of manure below. Figs,
dates, and grapes seem to be the chief fruits grown.

I passed in a corner shaded by tall palm trees a large well which
formed a perfect picture--children frisked about, while women dre