kam

What time. Sa'a waked One o'clock. Maragsh Arabi I don't speak Arabic. Kam tamanu What does it cost?

April 5th.—This has been a day of exceptional heat, and curiously is the religious day of the Moslems called Shem-el-nessim, which in Arabic means "breathing the cool breeze". To-day all their shops are shut, and the whole day is spent in the country. What is celebrated is the first of the hot simoon winds which last fifty days, and apparently the day for their commencement is most accurately gauged. We were all only too glad to carry out the written instructions we received some days ago, to keep under cover and try to sleep from noon to three o'clock, and if you cannot sleep yourself you must keep quiet and allow others to sleep. No bugle calls are allowed between these hours. All round us there has been haze through which the sun could not penetrate, but if he had the result would have been truly terrible. The dust has also been worse than usual and everything in my tent is grey. This is another of the plagues of Egypt. However, if rumour is true, we will soon depart from here for more active service.

After dark to-night we went out in search of men supposed to be wounded, six of our bearers acting as these and starting fifteen minutes before the stretcher bearers. The night was very dark and the pure white ground looked absolutely even, and some narrow escapes were made, several finding just in time that they were on the edge of a precipice. We had planned a few signals, but the principal lesson we were taught was that these were too few in number, and owing to this whole stretcher squads got lost.

We are still finding and having visits from new animals. To-day I had a dragon fly brought to me. I find I had seen several of these before but had mistaken them for locusts. The latter have much heavier bodies, but very similar wings. We have just had a visit from a huge beetle which we heard battering the tent, then it gradually got nearer, next hitting the tent pole and falling on the small table on which my candle flickers, the glare of which had attracted him. Kellas caught a moth and kept it for me. It was nothing much to look at, but it is the very first I have seen here. He also describes another moth he saw to-day as fluttering in front of a flower without alighting on it, but hovering and thrusting its proboscis into a long-tubed flower. I once saw a similar moth at Torphins (this had been the Humming bird moth which I have seen hundreds of since then).

When different units get together in a camp the amount of thieving, technically called skirmishing, is beyond belief to anyone unaccustomed to camp life. At present we have two mules that do not belong to us. One wandered into our camp and a man who claimed it as belonging to his unit was told he had to prove his statement before he would be allowed to remove it, which he failed to do. To-day another was brought in tied to the tail-board of a wagon. It was seen wandering near the road between this and Alexandria, and the men in the wagon commandeered him at once, and here he will remain. I am a fairly good skirmisher myself, and when a wagon pole, for which I was responsible when unloading at the docks, did not turn up, I had two in its place in no time. We afterwards found that neither of them would fit any of our wagons. The cook has been handicapped in his work by having no table, but to-day he has one about 12 feet long which he tells me he got "over the road" last night when it was dark. Agassiz, our transport officer, requests us to look out for a picket rope; he would like it two inches thick and about 100 feet long. Rather a big order but should not be beyond our combined efforts.

April 6th.—Two Infantry Brigades, our Ambulance (89th) and the West Lancashire Ambulance (87th) were inspected by General Sir Ian Hamilton. Like ourselves he is an Aberdonian, being a member of the Hamilton family of Skene House. We had a very dusty day, all returning to camp quite grey.

In the afternoon I visited Alexandria with Stephen and Thomson and had tea at the Hotel Majestic in the Square of Mahomet Ali, the finest part of the town, then we flattened our noses against shop windows and bought a few odds and ends for home. The shops along the street to the left of the Bourse (Rue Sheref Pasha) were good and interesting, especially one that sold only Egyptian goods—Tawa's—where we made most of our purchases.

Then I chanced to come across Fiddes and Morris driving down this street when they hailed me and announced that they had just come from the Excelsior Hotel, the headquarters of the 29th Division, with the news that our bearers had to set off for the front before morning, and that I was one of the three officers who were to accompany them. We finished our shopping, and I went to Cook's office and wrote two post cards, then drove out to Mex, we all meeting round the mess table to hear the latest orders.

April 7th.—Hung about all day in expectation of the promise from H.Q. that they would 'phone to us when it was decided at what hour we were to start. No message came during the day, then after 9 p.m. an officer came in from our Brigade H.Q., saying they were wondering at the boat "why the devil we were not on board". After a little 'phoning we discovered we had been overlooked, and we were ordered to march at once as our boat was to sail at 7 a.m. to-morrow. It was now past 10 p.m. and the men had to be roused from their tents and the mules yoked. We fell in, 124 men and 3 officers, and amidst loud cheers and handshakes we set off and reached the docks about 1.30. We were only allowed light equipment, the men their kitbags, waterbottles, haversacks, and coats rolled in bandolier fashion (i.e. full marching order) while the officers were supposed not to exceed the regulation 35 lbs. of baggage. Most of our equipment we left to come on with the tent subdivision and transport which are expected to sail on the 10th, in our old ship the "Marquette". Thus ended the first four miles of our journey, on this the last stage, while to-morrow we sail north, presumably for Gallipoli, but some say Smyrna, to join in what will be a most bloody affair—so we have been warned by Lord Kitchener who, in an address to our Infantry Battalions, has said that the work before us will be hard in the extreme, and that he had reserved our Infantry as the finest Battalions in the Army for this arduous job, and told them that they must be prepared to face great hardships and great sacrifices. In the 86th Brigade, to which our Ambulance is attached, we have four veteran Battalions, 2nd Royal Fusiliers, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and the 1st Munster Fusiliers. This Brigade was described by Sir Ian Hamilton as the flower of the British Army. All have served nine or ten years in India and all have smelt powder.

April 8th.—At 10.45 a.m. the Cunard liner, the "Ausonia" (better known at present as B4) cast off, and with the help of two tugs we were soon out on the open sea. She had sailed from Avonmouth on March 16, the night on which we were booked to sail, and in the Bristol Channel some suspicious craft suddenly appeared. She at once altered her course and the two attendant torpedo boats gave chase to what was taken to be a German submarine. We had been told that the reason for our not sailing on the same date was that our boat was not in, but our captain afterwards told us he had been lying to for a whole week, but the presence of this submarine was the real reason.

The forces for the present