o the post. There was also considerable interest evinced
in the passing vessels--feluccas and barges carrying stone and stores
to Ferry Post, transports, and steamers bound for or returning from
Australia. With these last news was exchanged _viva voce_, and
passengers sometimes threw ashore tins of cigarettes, tobacco, and
chocolates.

[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN POSITION IN DEFENCE OF THE SUEZ CANAL, 1916.
_Map by Australian War Museum._]

Attached to the 28th was a section of the Hongkong-Singapore Royal
Garrison Artillery, manned by Sikhs, and a detachment of the Bikanir
Camel Corps--a force composed of the subjects of India, which had been
raised and was maintained in the field by the Maharajah of that State.
An additional force was the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, under
Captain Bracegirdle, which had been present at Suvla Bay and marched
into Ferry Post a few days after the 2nd Division arrived in the
vicinity. This unit was to assist in the management of the bridge and
ferry traffic.

The Battalion was accommodated partly in tents and partly in wooden
rush-roofed huts. Its duties were many. Training was almost impossible.
A guard had to be furnished for a large Ordnance Depot located on the
west bank. Men had to be found to work the ferry on which, when the
pontoon bridge was drawn back, troops and horses were hauled across the
Canal. Police to regulate the traffic over the bridge and maintain a
check on the passes, without which no person was allowed to cross the
waterway. Then again, the natives who fished the lake were not allowed
to ply their trade except with a written permit and the presence in the
boat of a soldier. This escort duty was not unpopular, for the reason
that nearly every man who performed it returned to camp with several
pounds' weight of excellent fish.

But the foregoing were the light duties. Others, more arduous, were
attached to the handling of the hundreds of tons of supplies which were
daily dumped on the wharf at Ferry Post and taken away to the forward
area by horse wagons. On Gallipoli the soldier became also a navvy. At
Ferry Post he was changed into a wharf labourer. Few who were there will
forget the task of handling the iron water mains which had to be cleared
from the barges, without the aid of cranes, and which ruined the
clothing by contact with the tar with which they were covered. Then
again, the adjacent dump absorbed many men, and what clothing the pipes
ha