allow of a forward
movement, Firket was fought. After Firket the situation became
difficult, and the problem of the supply officers was to keep the troops
alive without delaying the progress of the railway with the carriage of
their food. A small quantity of provisions was painfully dragged, with
an average loss of 50 per cent from theft and water damage, up the
succession of cataracts which obstruct the river-way from Halfa to
Kosheh. Camel convoys from Railhead carried the rest. But until the line
reached Kosheh the resources of the transport were terribly strained,
and at one time it was even necessary to send the mounted troops north
to avoid actual famine. The apparent inadequacy of the means to the end
reached a climax when the army moved southward from Dulgo. The marches
and halts to Dongola were estimated to take ten days, which was the
utmost capacity of camel and steam transport, A few boat-loads of
grain might be captured; a few handfuls of dates might be plucked; but
scarcely any local supplies would be available. The sailing-boats,
which were the only regular means of transport, were all delayed by the
adverse winds. Fortune returned at the critical moment. By good luck
on the first day of the march the north wind began to blow, and twelve
days' supplies, over and above those moved by camel and steamer, reached
Dongola with the troops. With this reserve in hand, the occupation of
the province was completed, and although the army only existed from hand
to mouth until the railway reached Kerma, no further serious difficulty
was experienced in supplying them.

The account of the commissariat is now complete to the end of the
Dongola Expedition; but it may conveniently be carried forward with
the railway construction. In the Abu Hamed phase the supplies were so
regulated that a convoy travelling from Murat Wells along the caravan
route arrived the day after the fight; and thereafter communications
were opened with Merawi. The unexpected occupation of Berber, following
Abu Hamed, created the most difficult situation of the war. Until the
railway was forced on to Berber a peculiarly inconvenient line of supply
had to be used; and strings of camels, scattering never less than 30
per cent of their loads, meandered through the rough and thorny country
between Merawi and Abu Hamed. This line was strengthened by other
convoys from Murat and the approaching Railhead, and a system of boats
and camel portages filtered t