troops straggled
into a long procession, and had several times for more than an hour to
move in single file over passes and through narrow defiles strewn with
the innumerable boulders from which the 'Belly of Stones' has derived
its name. The right of their line of march was protected by the Nile,
and although it was occasionally necessary to leave the bank, to avoid
difficult ground, the column camped each night by the river. The cavalry
and the Camel Corps searched the country to the south and east; for it
was expected that the Dervishes would resist the advance. Creeping
along the bank, and prepared at a moment's notice to stand at bay at
the water's edge, the small force proceeded on its way. Wady Atira was
reached on the 18th, Tanjore on the 19th, and on the 20th the column
marched into Akasha.

The huts of the mud village were crumbling back into the desert sand.
The old British fort and a number of storehouses--relics of the Gordon
Relief Expedition--were in ruins. The railway from Sarras had been
pulled to pieces. Most of the sleepers had disappeared, but the rails
lay scattered along the track. All was deserted: yet one grim object
proclaimed the Dervish occupation. Beyond the old station and near the
river a single rail had been fixed nearly upright in the ground. From
one of the holes for the fishplate bolts there dangled a rotten cord,
and on the sand beneath this improvised yet apparently effective gallows
lay a human skull and bones, quite white and beautifully polished by
the action of sun and wind. Half-a-dozen friendly Arabs, who had taken
refuge on the island below the cataract, were the only inhabitants of
the district.

The troops began to place themselves in a defensive position without
delay. On the 22nd the cavalry and Camel Corps returned with the empty
convoy to Sarras to escort to the front a second and larger column,
under the command of Major MacDonald, and consisting of the XIth and
XIIth Soudanese, one company of the 3rd Egyptians (dropped as a garrison
at Ambigole Wells), and a heavy convoy of stores numbering six hundred
camels. Starting from Sarras on the 24th, the column, after four days'
marching, arrived without accident or attack, and MacDonald assumed
command of the whole advanced force.

Akasha was now converted into a strong entrenched camp, in which an
advanced base was formed. Its garrison of three battalions, a battery,
and the mounted troops, drew their supplies by camel tr