rses were strained and lamed. It was indeed
fat land, and had formerly grown cotton. The cracks, as we found
later, were full of scorpions. During that night's bivouac, and in the
early morning, very many men and animals were stung by these venomous
pests. Only one soldier succumbed from a scorpion sting during the
campaign. The pain of the wound is as an intense burning or wounding,
and continues troublesome for hours. Ammonia was freely used by the
doctors when the stings were severe, but where whisky could be got,
that was preferred.

[Illustration: 21ST LANCERS--ADVANCE GUARD.]

We were early astir on the 17th inst., but it was not until daylight
or 5.30 a.m. that it was safe for the column to pick its way out of
the field of cracks. Why the spot was selected, except as an earthly
trial, I am unable to state, officially or otherwise. Hard by, on
either hand, there was solid and most passable ground for bivouacking.
We had a good many stragglers on the 16th inst., most of whom came
rather late tumbling and grumbling to supper and bed on the rough dank
ground. Others lost their way and wandered to the Nile, where they
were guided by natives, and later were lucky to get a lift to the
front upon gunboats. Two men of the 21st Lancers left upon the desert
with a sick comrade down with sunstroke, watched him die, and,
scraping a grave, buried him where he expired. Lieutenant Winston
Churchill, who was detained until late at Dakhala, in trying to follow
us, lost his way, and had to pass the night alone upon the desert. He
sat holding his horse till daybreak, and then, burning with thirst,
made his way to the Nile. Subsequently he hired a native guide and was
enabled to come up with the column on the afternoon of the 17th.
Spending the night alone upon the desert has been many times my lot in
Soudan campaigns.

During Wednesday's march, 17th August, we crossed the low shoulders of
many rocky ridges. They are called "jebels" (hills), but most of them,
including Jebel Egeda, which we passed, are little, if any, higher
than Primrose-Hill, London, though it is not a conical, but a long,
barn-roofed range. Near there I saw an enormous native cemetery. It
extended to perhaps fifty acres, the pebble-covered mounds over the
graves dotting the bare desert and the sides of the hills. I have an
impression that there are ancient funeral mounds near there, and that
the burying-place of Aliab is older than the invasion of the Arab
Jaa