12th.... “The extraordinary heavy weights of the iron mortars and beds proved a great embarrassment without any peculiar advantage derived from them. Indeed, where no considerable extent of range is required--as is the case in most attacks--brass mortars mounted upon proportional iron beds seem in general much preferable, at least under 13 inches in diameter....” 13th. “Flat boats are the best and most useful conveyance for troops, and ordnance, possible; every means, therefore, should be employed to preserve them from injury. Though apparently slight, it is surprising what they can bear. In moving the stores up Lake Etcho, for the attack of Fort Julian, some of them were dragged three miles over sand and mudbank. The battering-pieces for this service were obliged to be landed on the open sea-beach, and conveyed four miles across the deserts and swamps to their batteries. These laborious and difficult operations were frequently repeated during the expedition. Upwards of thirty 24-pounders were disembarked from the ordnance ships, conveyed by boats up Aboukir Lake, and landed near the head of it for the attack of Alexandria. From thence twenty were returned to the ships in Aboukir Bay, conveyed to the mouth of the western branch of the Nile, disembarked and taken over that dangerous bar by _sea-jerms_, landed at Fort St. Julian, re-embarked there in _river-jerms_, in order to proceed up the Nile. Several were landed within four miles of Grand Cairo, and conveyed from thence twelve miles across the country, for the attack of Gizeh;--returned back after the surrender of Cairo by the same route, and exactly in like manner to Alexandria;--relanded there for further operations of attacks carrying on both on the eastern and western side of it,--the capitulation of which concluding the campaign, they were again conveyed to the ships in Aboukir Bay. “Besides the articles already detailed, numerous minute circumstances happened in the course of the campaign, which necessity continually urged the imagination to provide against. Every movement by land or water was attended with infinite labour and difficulties; added to which the violent heat of the sun, and shocks received by passing over the formidable cracks it occasioned in the ground (annually overflowed by the Nile) on the march to Cairo operated so powerfully on the carriages, as to require perpetual attention and daily repair--without the most common materials for such occasions, either of wood or iron, to be found in the country. “N.B. The oxen drew very well upon common ground, but in deep sand they generally became restive. The large-sized mules were excellent in draught when well-disposed; but, from their natural obstinacy, it was found best to intermix them with horses.” RETURN OF ORDNANCE CAPTURED IN EGYPT.