Besides this,
each unit carried ten, and the column transport seven, days' rations.
Thus the force were supplied with food up till the 9th of February,
and their radius of action, except as restricted by water,
was nineteen days. This was further extended five days by the arrangement
of a convoy which was to set out on the 30th of January to meet them
as they returned.
The column - numbering 1,604 officers and men and 1,624 camels and other
beasts of burden - started from Kohi at 3 P.M. on the 23rd of January,
having sent on a small advanced party to the wells of Gedid twelve hours
before. The country through which their route lay was of barren and
miserable aspect. They had embarked on a sandy ocean with waves of
thorny scrub and withered grass. From the occasional rocky ridges,
which allowed a more extended view, this sterile jungle could be seen
stretching indefinitely on all sides. Ten miles from the river all
vestiges of animal life disappeared. The land was a desert; not the open
desert of the Northern Soudan, but one vast unprofitable thicket,
whose interlacing thorn bushes, unable to yield the slightest nourishment
to living creatures, could yet obstruct their path.
Through this the straggling column, headed in the daylight by the red
Egyptian flag and at night by a lantern on a pole, wound its weary way,
the advanced guard cutting a path with axes and marking the track with
strips of calico, the rearguard driving on the laggard camels and
picking up the numerous loads which were cast. Three long marches brought
them on the 25th to Gedid. The first detachment had already arrived and had
opened up the wells. None gave much water; all emitted a foul stench,
and one was occupied by a poisonous serpent eight feet long - the sole
inhabitant. The camels were sent to drink at the pool seven miles away,
and it was hoped that some of the water-skins could be refilled;
but, after all, the green slime was thought unfit for human consumption,
and they had to come back empty.
The march was resumed on the 26th. The trees were now larger;
the scrub became a forest; the sandy soil changed to a dark red colour;
but otherwise the character of the country was unaltered. The column rested
at Abu Rokba. A few starving inhabitants who occupied the huts pointed out
the grave of the Khalifa's father and the little straw house in which
Abdullah was wont to pray during his visits. Lately, they said, he had
retired from Aigaila to Shirkela, but even from this latter place
he had made frequent pilgrimages.
At the end of the next march, which was made by day, the guides,
whose memories had been refreshed by flogging, discovered a large pool of
good water, and all drank deeply in thankful joy.
