One brigade's movements synchronised with
those of another, and the river was crossed, commanding positions were
seized, and bridges were built with an astoundingly small loss to
ourselves. The Lowland Scots worked as if at sport, and they could not
have worked longer or stronger if the whole honour of Scotland had
depended upon their efforts. At a later date, when digging at Arsuf,
these Scots came across some marble columns which had graced a hall
when Apollonia was in its heyday. The glory of Apollonia has long
vanished, but if in that age of warriors there had been a belief
that those marble columns would some day be raised as monuments to
commemorate a great operation of war the ancients would have had a
special veneration for them. Three of the columns marked the spots
where the Scots spanned the river, and it is a pity they cannot tell
the full story to succeeding generations.

The river Auja is a perennial stream emptying itself into the blue
Mediterranean waters four miles north of Jaffa. Its average width is
forty yards and its depth ten feet, with a current running at about
three miles an hour. Till we crossed it the river was the boundary
between the British and Turkish armies in this sector, and all the
advantage of observation was on the northern bank. From it the town of
Jaffa and its port were in danger, and the main road between Jaffa and
Ramleh was observed and under fire. The village of Sheikh Muannis,
about two miles inland, stood on a high mound commanding the ground
south of the river, and from Hadrah you could keep the river in sight
in its whole winding course to the sea. All this high ground concealed
an entrenched enemy; on the southern side of the river the Turks were
on Bald Hill, and held a line of trenches covering the Jewish colony
of Mulebbis and Fejja. A bridge and a mill dam having been destroyed
during winter the only means of crossing was by a ford three feet deep
at the mouth, an uncertain passage because the sand bar over which one
could walk shifted after heavy rain when the stream was swollen with
flood water. Reconnaissances at the river mouth were carried out with
great daring. As I said, all the southern approaches to the river were
commanded by the Turks on the northern bank, who were always alert,
and the movement of one man in the Auja valley was generally the
signal for artillery activity. So often did the Turkish gunners salute
the appearance of a single British soldier th