ugh more numerous, were
scattered about in small parties, and, being unable to collect,
they declined the combat. The great army, however, still advanced
majestically, pressing the cavalry back before it; and it was evident
that if the Khalifa's movement continued, in spite of it being nearly
one o'clock, there would be a collision between the main forces before
the night.

From the summit of the black hill of Surgham the scene was
extraordinary. The great army of Dervishes was dwarfed by the size of
the landscape to mere dark smears and smudges on the brown of the plain.
Looking east, another army was now visible--the British and Egyptian
army. All six brigades had passed the Kerreri Hills, and now stood drawn
up in a crescent, with their backs to the Nile. The transport and the
houses of the village of Egeiga filled the enclosed space. Neither force
could see the other, though but five miles divided them. The array of
the enemy was, without doubt, both longer and deeper. Yet there seemed a
superior strength in the solid battalions, whose lines were so straight
that they might have been drawn with a ruler.

The camp presented an animated appearance. The troops had piled arms
after the march, and had already built a slender hedge of thorn-bushes
around them. Now they were eating their dinners, and in high expectation
of a fight. The whole army had been ordered to stand to arms at two
o'clock in formation to resist the attack which it seemed the Dervishes
were about to deliver. But at a quarter to two the Dervish army halted.
Their drill was excellent, and they all stopped as by a single command.
Then suddenly their riflemen discharged their rifles in the air with a
great roar--a barbaric feu de joie. The smoke sprang up along the whole
front of their array, running from one end to the other. After this they
lay down on the ground, and it became certain that the matter would not
be settled that day. We remained in our position among the sandhills
of the ridge until the approach of darkness, and during the afternoon
various petty encounters took place between our patrols and those of the
enemy, resulting in a loss to them of about a dozen killed and wounded,
and to us of one corporal wounded and one horse killed. Then, as the
light failed, we returned to the river to water and encamp, passing into
the zeriba through the ranks of the British division, where officers and
men, looking out steadfastly over the fading plain,