ly undecided what to do. Eventually it turns and climbs the
lower slopes of Mt. Carmel until, very nearly at the top, for no reason
whatever that I could see, it makes up its mind to descend again. After
about four hours of meandering you find yourself on the outskirts of the
town, wiping a heated brow and wondering aggrievedly why the wretched road
could not do its business properly.

Seen from the vicinity of the "brook Kishon," where we camped that night,
Haifa is a beautifully clean-looking town of modern stone houses each with
its little cluster of trees round it, built on the mountain-side high above
the malaria-infested flats which stretch eastwards towards the Esdraelon
Plain. The inhabitants seemed uncommonly glad to see British troops, and
gave the sailors who were granted shore-leave a particularly warm welcome.
It was pleasant to hear some news, after being "off the map" for five days.
The cavalry had been doing amazing things, for they started from Nazareth
almost immediately after its capture and rode westwards to Haifa, which
they stormed in face of strong opposition. Another party rode on to Acre,
twelve miles away, capturing it without difficulty; after which the two
forces joined up and turned east again towards the Sea of Galilee.
Meanwhile the cavalry coming from the Jordan Valley had been fighting
constantly with the stray bodies of Turks encountered on the northward
march.

Resistance was for the most part unorganised; but at Semakh, a town at the
southern end of the Sea of Galilee, the Turks made a most determined effort
to save the railway. The Australians, however, were in a hurry; they wanted
to be the first troops to reach Damascus, and would brook no delay. Semakh
was taken by a brilliant and impetuous charge which carried the Australians
through the defences and ended in the Sea of Galilee, as also did large
numbers of the enemy!

Royal Tiberias was occupied next, after which both the eastern and western
forces started on the hundred-mile ride to Damascus, which necessitated a
climb from six hundred feet below sea level to nearly three thousand above.
Again there was some desultory but bitter fighting, notably at the Jordan
soon after the march had begun, but the cavalry carried everything before
them, and, riding day and night, reached Damascus on October 1st, after a
final burst of thirty-six hours in the saddle. In the ten days since the
opening of the offensive they had covered upwards