of their line of march was protected by the Nile, and although it was occasionally necessary to leave the bank, to avoid difficult ground, the column camped each night by the river.  The cavalry and the Camel Corps searched the country to the south and east; for it was expected that the Dervishes would resist the advance.  Creeping along the bank, and prepared at a moment’s notice to stand at bay at the water’s edge, the small force proceeded on its way.  Wady Atira was reached on the 18th, Tanjore on the 19th, and on the 20th the column marched into Akasha.

The huts of the mud village were crumbling back into the desert sand.  The old British fort and a number of storehouses—­relics of the Gordon Relief Expedition—­were in ruins.  The railway from Sarras had been pulled to pieces.  Most of the sleepers had disappeared, but the rails lay scattered along the track.  All was deserted:  yet one grim object proclaimed the Dervish occupation.  Beyond the old station and near the river a single rail had been fixed nearly upright in the ground.  From one of the holes for the fishplate bolts there dangled a rotten cord, and on the sand beneath this improvised yet apparently effective gallows lay a human skull and bones, quite white and beautifully polished by the action of sun and wind.  Half-a-dozen friendly Arabs, who had taken refuge on the island below the cataract, were the only inhabitants of the district.

The troops began to place themselves in a defensive position without delay.  On the 22nd the cavalry and Camel Corps returned with the empty convoy to Sarras to escort to the front a second and larger column, under the command of Major MacDonald, and consisting of the XIth and XIIth Soudanese, one company of the 3rd Egyptians (dropped as a garrison at Ambigole Wells), and a heavy convoy of stores numbering six hundred camels.  Starting from Sarras on the 24th, the column, after four days’ marching, arrived without accident or attack, and MacDonald assumed command of the whole advanced force.

Akasha was now converted into a strong entrenched camp, in which an advanced base was formed.  Its garrison of three battalions, a battery, and the mounted troops, drew their supplies by camel transport from Sarras.  The country to the south and east was continually patrolled, to guard against a turning movement, and the communications were further strengthened by the establishment of fortified posts at Semna, Wady Atira, and Tanjore.  The friendly Arab tribes—­Bedouin, Kabbabish, and Foggara—­ranged still more widely in the deserts and occupied the scattered wells.  All this time the Dervishes watched supinely from their position at Fuket, and although they were within a single march of Akasha they remained inactive and made no attempt to disturb the operations.