ractical joke
when it designed the palm to be the only tree which will grow in the
desert. From a distance it looks well, but when the weary traveller
approaches and proposes to rest beneath its shade, he finds he has to
choose between the thin shadow of the trunk, not wide enough to shelter
him, and the little blob of shade given by the clump of leaves at the
top; this latter, coming from a point high above ground, moves round
with the sun so quickly that you are hardly settled in it before it has
glided away, and you must chase it round in a great unrestful circle.
However, whenever the trees are thick on the ground the difficulty is
not so great--our trouble came rather from other causes. The oasis was
full of men. Part of the 42nd had come up on our right, and Headquarters
and details of the Anzacs and Camel Corps were on our left. The area had
recently been occupied by the Turks who are not a clean race, and before
that, cavalry had used it for some months. Not far away lay the remains
of camels and horses slaughtered in the Turkish raid in April, while the
dead of the recent fighting lay unburied all round the neighbourhood.
The E.E.F. were experts in sanitation, but sanitary stores and
appliances had not yet reached us, and the ground beneath the trees was
frankly filthy. Flies of course abounded. We had little to do and less
to eat--bully and biscuits and none too much of it. The biscuit supply
had struck a bad patch and most of the tins were found to harbour
various forms of animal life--reputed to be weevils. They could be eaten
with impunity--we knew that by experience--but that did not make the
biscuits more appetising.

The Turkish planes bombed us daily but with little success. Their bombs
were of small size and the sand seemed somehow to smother them, so that
they were more noisy than dangerous. The men who had fallen out rejoined
us as best they could, the worst of them being removed to hospitals, and
by the 14th we were well rested and ready for "the road" again.

The preparations for departure began as usual with the laying out of
stores in camel loads. A camel's load has to be nicely calculated. He
must not carry more than a certain amount, about 350 lbs.--if he carries
less you can't get everything on--and the load must be evenly divided
between the two sides of his saddle. With water, carried in the tanks
holding about twelve gallons--called fantassies--and with S.A.A.
blankets, this is easy enough