n letters received from the homeland, it was
ascertained that such a rumour was actually current there coincident
with its first being mentioned on the transport. Possibly its origin may
be remotely connected with the fact that, simultaneously with the
arrival of the "Ascanius" in the Gulf of Suez, a sister ship struck a
mine at the entrance to the Bitter Lakes and had to be beached. The hull
was visible to passengers on the Suez-Cairo railway.

[Illustration: TWO VERY YOUNG SOLDIERS.
Signaller H. H. Holmes. - Bugler A. J. Shipway.
Killed in action in France, August, 1916.]

On the evening of June 29th the lights of Suez came into view. Shortly
before midnight the transport dropped anchor some distance from the
town. Next morning a rather unattractive panorama was unveiled to
view. On the west were the bare heights of Jebel Attaka; to the north
Suez lay with its rambling and squalid-looking houses; to the north-east
was Port Tewfik, and beyond that--running down east and south-east--were
the desert sands of Sinai. The waters of the Gulf were calm, but every
revolution of the screws stirred up filth and polluted the air. Some
distance away lay another ship obviously also carrying troops. Greetings
were exchanged at long range. Eventually it was learned that the
transport was the "Ballarat" with a load of invalids for Australia.
Amongst them evidently dwelt a pessimist, for in reply to the new
arrivals' stentorian and unanimous "NO!" to the question "Are we
downhearted?" a disconsolate voice sounded across the water, "Well, you
---- soon will be."

As rather exaggerated accounts had been received in Australia as to the
dangers of communicating with the native inhabitants of Egypt, special
precautions were taken to prevent bumboat men from coming on board or
too closely approaching the sides. Two boats' crews patrolled round
about and sentries armed with loaded rifles stood at the tops of the
gangways. This resulted in an amusing incident when a dhow, manned by a
very fat Arab fisherman and a small native boy, came too close to the
troopship. No heed being taken of signals to keep further away, the
sentry on duty was instructed to fire a rifle shot across the bow of the
small craft. This proved most effective, and everyone roared with
laughter when the stout fisherman hastily dived below the gunwale out of
sight and forced the terrified small boy to take the helm and steer away
out of danger. In spite