ence was already
impassable. Since they must remain on the enemy's side, so must their
depot; and the depot must be held by a much stronger force. Although the
Sirdar felt too weak to maintain himself even on the defensive without
reinforcements, he was now compelled to push still further south. On the
22nd of December Lewis's brigade of four battalions and a battery were
hurried along the Nile to its junction with the Atbara, and began busily
entrenching themselves in a angle formed by the rivers. The Atbara fort
sprang into existence.

Meanwhile the concentration was proceeding. All the troops in Dongola,
with the exception of scanty garrisons in Merawi, Korti, and Debba,
were massed at Berber. The infantry and guns, dropping down the river
in boats, entrained at Kerma, were carried back to Halfa, then hustled
across the invaluable Desert Railway, past Abu Hamed, and finally
deposited at Railhead, which then (January 1) stood at Dakhesh. The
whole journey by rail from Merawi to Dakhesh occupied four days, whereas
General Hunter with his flying column had taken eight--a fact which
proves that, in certain circumstances which Euclid could not have
foreseen, two sides of a triangle are together shorter than the third
side. The Egyptian cavalry at Merawi received their orders on the 25th
of December, and the British officers hurried from their Christmas
dinners to prepare for their long march across the bend of the Nile to
Berber. Of the eight squadrons, three were pushed on to join Lewis's
force at the position which will hereinafter be called 'the Atbara
encampment,' or more familiarly 'the Atbara'; three swelled the
gathering forces at Berber; and two remained for the present in the
Dongola province, looking anxiously out towards Gakdul Wells and
Metemma.

The War Office, who had been nervous about the situation in the
Soudan since the hasty occupation of Berber, and who had a very lively
recollection of the events of 1884 and 1885, lost no time in the
despatch of British troops; and the speed with which a force, so
suddenly called for, was concentrated shows the capacity for energy
which may on occasion be developed even by our disjointed military
organisation. The 1st Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, of
the Lincoln Regiment, and of the Cameron Highlanders were formed into a
brigade and moved from Cairo into the Soudan. The 1st Battalion of
the Seaforth Highlanders was brought from Malta to Egypt, and h