The mounted troops, co-operating with bodies of infantry from one or other of the two Divisions, kept in touch with the enemy, and pressed him farther and farther to the east as the work of construction went forward. The railway reached Bir-el-Abd, nearly thirty miles east of Romani and more than fifty from the Canal, then to Salmana, then Tilul, and in November the railhead was at El Mazar, about eighty miles east of the Canal. Engagements took place at Bir-el-Abd and at El Mazar, the latter forcing the enemy to withdraw upon El Arish, their base and the most important town in Sinai. As each stage of railway and water-main construction was completed the main bodies of the 42nd and 52nd Divisions also advanced a stage. Viewed from a distance, the slow-moving column seemed to have strayed into the scene from out of the twentieth century B.C., as the long line of laden camels wended their deliberate way along interminable stretches of bare sand, or across salt lakes of dazzling whiteness, or through undulating scrub country which raised fleeting hopes that the desert had been left behind. Turkish aircraft continued to harass the advance, but the bombing was rarely effective, and even the natives of the Egyptian Labour Corps grew accustomed to the raids, and no longer bolted like rabbits for cover when a plane was sighted. Due acknowledgment must be rendered to these Gyppies, who worked with admirable rapidity and cheerfulness, each gang being in charge of a native ganger whose badges of authority were two stripes and a stick which was freely used. While working they invariably chanted, the ganger acting as fugleman, and the heavier the work the louder the chanting. When they were not chanting they were not working. It was at times fortunate that the soldiers did not understand the words chanted. The English soldiers soon took up the idea, and when collective effort was required, it was done to the accompaniment of some extraordinary singing. Towards the end of November the 42nd Division occupied El Mazar, only twenty-five miles from El Arish, and the railway was already pushed on to El Maadan, about ten miles further east, where an important railhead was constructed and arrangements made for the storage of a large water supply to be fed by railway tanks. Three or four times a week every man had for breakfast a 1 lb. loaf baked in Kantara on the previous afternoon.