tacles in the way of landing stores from ships
were the extremely dangerous coast and enemy submarines. The Mediterranean,
as elsewhere, was alive with "U" boats in the summer and autumn of 1917.
They levied a heavy toll on "troopers" and supply-ships coming out East,
and the Navy in its work of guarding the coast of Palestine during the
landing of supplies did not escape unscathed. That this was carried on
successfully and the troops in the Judaean hills were fed was very largely
owing to the untiring vigilance of British and Allied monitors and
destroyers.

The port of Jaffa was also used, and here the conditions were even worse.
Strictly speaking Jaffa is a port only in name, for all vessels have to
anchor off-shore and passengers and stores have to be landed in surf-boats.
In the rainy season the bar is almost impassable four days in the week and
the roar of the breakers can be heard miles away. Even when the sea was
calm enough for stores to be landed, the ground swell was such as to make
the ordinary landsman agree with Dr. Johnson's remark "that he would rather
go to gaol than to sea." It is easy to understand why the materials for
Solomon's Temple were brought to Jaffa on rafts; no other craft of those
days would have withstood the buffetings of the breakers.

But why Jonah ever chose this place from which to start his long journey to
Tarshish passes my comprehension unless, indeed, it was Hobson's choice. He
must certainly have been violently ill ere ever his flimsy boat had crossed
the bar--a feat his whale could never have accomplished at all--and for a
man of his temperament, soured by many trials, this must have been the last
straw.

Patience, by the way, was a powerful characteristic of the sailors engaged
in landing stores on the coast. A supply-ship, finding the sea at the Wadi
Sukerier too high to permit of stores being landed, went on to Jaffa, found
the breakers impossibly high there and returned to Sukerier. This amusing
pastime went on for three days, when the waters abated somewhat and the
stores were safely landed. As there was a "U" boat in the offing most of
the time, however, the humour of the situation did not strike the sailors
till afterwards.

Such were some of the difficulties confronting those who were responsible
for supplying the army with rations; and those whose business it was to
carry them to the troops holding the line could tell a similar story.
Although the engineers made road