pt at high Nile, a formidable barrier, Once this is passed, there is
open water for more than 200 miles at all seasons to Merawi. The banks
of the river, except near Sadin Fanti, where the hills close in, are
flat and low. The Eastern bank is lined with a fringe of palm-trees
and a thin strip of cultivation, which constitutes what is called 'the
fertile province of Dongola.' On the other side the desert reaches the
water's edge. Along the right bank of this part of the river the army
was now to move.

The first act of the advance was the occupation of Absarat, and on the
23rd of August MacDonald's brigade marched thither from Suarda, cutting
across the desert to Sadin Fanti, and then following the bank of the
Nile. The occupation of Absarat covered the next movement. On the 26th
Lewis's brigade was ordered to march across the loop from Kosheh to
Sadin Fanti, and reinforce the brigade at Absarat. The distance of
thirty-seven miles was far too great to be accomplished without a system
of watering-places. This the Sirdar rapidly organised. Water-depots were
formed by carrying tanks and water-skins on camels to two points in the
desert, and replenishing them by daily convoys. But now a heavy calamity
descended on the arrangements of the General and the hopes of the
troops.

During the afternoon of the 25th the wind veered suddenly to the south,
and thereupon a terrific storm of sand and rain, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, burst over the whole of the Nubian desert, and swept
along the line of communications from Suarda to Halfa. On the next day a
second deluge delayed the march of Lewis's brigade. But late on the 27th
they started, with disastrous results. Before they had reached the
first watering-place a third tempest, preceded by its choking sandstorm,
overtook them. Nearly 300 men fell out during the early part of the
night, and crawled and staggered back to Kosheh. Before the column
reached Sadin Fanti 1,700 more sank exhausted to the ground. Out of one
battalion 700 strong, only sixty men marched in. Nine deaths and eighty
serious cases of prostration occurred, and the movement of the brigade
from Kosheh to Absarat was grimly called 'The Death March.'

The 'Death March' was the least of the misfortunes caused by the storms.
The violent rains produced floods such as had not been seen in the
Soudan for fifty years. The water, pouring down the broad valleys,
formed furious torrents in the narrower gorges. More t