he work progressed and the
distance grew greater, until finally the material trains would have
one-third of their carrying power absorbed in transporting the water
for their own consumption. The amount of water necessary is largely
dependent on the grades of the line. The 'flat desert' proved to be
a steady slope up to a height of 1,600 feet above Halfa, and the
calculations were further complicated. The difficulty had, however, to
be faced, and a hundred 1,500-gallon tanks were procured. These
were mounted on trucks and connected by hose; and the most striking
characteristic of the trains of the Soudan military railway was the long
succession of enormous boxes on wheels, on which the motive power of the
engine and the lives of the passengers depended.

The first spadeful of sand of the Desert Railway was turned on the first
day of 1897; but until May, when the line to Kerma was finished, no
great efforts were made, and only forty miles of track had been laid. In
the meanwhile the men of the new Railway Battalion were being trained;
the plant was steadily accumulating; engines, rolling stock, and
material of all sorts had arrived from England. From the growing
workshops at Wady Halfa the continual clatter and clang of hammers and
the black smoke of manufacture rose to the African sky. The malodorous
incense of civilisation was offered to the startled gods of Egypt. All
this was preparation; nor was it until the 8th of May that track-laying
into the desert was begun in earnest. The whole of the construction
gangs and railroad staff were brought from Kerma to Wady Halfa, and the
daring pioneers of modern war started on their long march through the
wilderness, dragging their railway behind them--safe and sure road
which infantry, cavalry, guns, and gunboats might follow with speed and
convenience.

It is scarcely within the power of words to describe the savage
desolation of the regions into which the line and its constructors
plunged. A smooth ocean of bright-coloured sand spread far and wide to
distant horizons. The tropical sun beat with senseless perseverance upon
the level surface until it could scarcely be touched with a naked hand,
and the filmy air glittered and shimmered as over a furnace. Here and
there huge masses of crumbling rock rose from the plain, like islands of
cinders in a sea of fire. Alone in this vast expanse stood Railhead--a
canvas town of 2,500 inhabitants, complete with station, stores,
post-off