ide of the river. An improvised dockyard, equipped with
powerful twenty-ton shears and other appliances, was established, and
the work--complicated as a Chinese puzzle--of fitting and riveting
together the hundreds of various parts proceeded swiftly. Gradually the
strange heaps of parts began to evolve a mighty engine of war. The new
gunboats were in every way remarkable. The old vessels had been 90
feet long. These were 140 feet. Their breadth was 24 feet. They steamed
twelve miles an hour. They had a command of 30 feet. Their decks were
all protected by steel plates, and prepared by loopholed shields for
musketry. Their armament was formidable. Each carried one twelve-pounder
quick-firing gun forward, two six-pounder quick-firing guns in the
central battery, and four Maxim guns. Every modern improvement--such
as ammunition hoists, telegraphs, search-lights, and steam-winches--was
added. Yet with all this they drew only thirty-nine inches of water.

The contract specified that these vessels should be delivered at
Alexandria by the 5th of September, but, by exertions, the first boat,
the Zafir, reached Egypt on the 23rd of July, having been made in eight
weeks, and in time to have assisted in the advance on Dongola. The
vessels and machinery had been constructed and erected in the works in
London; they were then marked, numbered, and taken to pieces, and after
being shipped to Alexandria and transported to the front were finally
put together at Kosheh. Although in a journey of 4,000 miles they were
seven times transhipped, not a single important piece was lost.

The convenience of Kosheh on the clear waterway, and the dirty condition
of Firket, were in themselves sufficient reasons for the change of camp;
but another and graver cause lay behind. During the month of June an
epidemic of cholera began to creep up the Nile from Cairo. On the 29th
there were some cases at Assuan. On the 30th it reached Wady Halfa. In
consequence of this the North Staffordshire Regiment marched into camp
at Gemai. Their three months' occupation of the town had not improved
their health or their spirits. During the sixteen-mile march along the
railway track to Gemai the first fatal case occurred, and thereafter
the sickness clung to the regiment until the middle of August, causing
continual deaths.

The cholera spread steadily southward up the river, claiming successive
victims in each camp. In the second week of July it reached the new
camp