t
of the hills. As the day broke, we found a transformation at Nibronesi
Point, which is the southernmost part of Suvla Bay. At nightfall not a
ship was there; now there was a perfect forest of masts. The place
looked like Siberia in Newcastle when there was a strike on. I counted
ten transports, seven battle-cruisers, fourteen destroyers, twelve
trawlers and a lot of pinnaces. These had landed the force which was
afterwards known as the Suvla Bay Army. A balloon ship and five
hospital ships were also at anchor in the bay. As we passed what was
known as our No. 3 Outpost, we came across evidences of the
fight--dead men, dead mules, equipment, ammunition boxes and rifles
lying all over the place. We noted, too, little hillocks of sand here
and there, from behind which the Turks had fired at our column. It was
evident that our men had soon got in touch with the enemy and had
driven him back. The Aghyl Dere proved to be a fairly wide gully with
steep hills on either side. A little distance, about three quarters of
a mile up, we came to what had been the Turkish Brigade Headquarters.
Here everything was as they had left it. The surprise had been
complete, and we had given them very short notice to quit. Clothing,
rifles, equipment, copper pans and boilers were in abundance, and it
was evident that Abdul makes war with regard to every comfort, for
there were visible also sundry articles of wearing apparel only used
by the gentler sex. The men had comfortable bivouacs and plenty of
bed-clothing of various patterns. The camp was situated in a hollow,
round in shape and about a hundred yards in diameter, with dug-outs in
the surrounding hillsides; all was very clean, except for the fleas,
of which a good assortment remained. The dug-outs were roofed in with
waterproof sheets, buttoned together and held up by pegs which fitted
into one another. These sheets, with the poles, made handy bivouac
shelters, easily pitched and struck. Altogether, their camp equipment
was better than ours.

We annexed all the pans and boilers and made good use of them for our
own Ambulance. Then, proceeding further up the gully, we found it
almost impassable by reason of dead Ghurkas and mules; a gun on a
ridge had the range of this place to a nicety, and the ammunition
train was held up for a time. I never saw such a mess of entangled
mules; they were kicking and squealing, many of them were wounded, and
through it all the Indian drivers were endeavo