Lack of water along the greater part of the central and southern tracks renders them impracticable for any but a small, mobile, desert-bred force, and against raiding parties of this description the chain of posts under construction would be a sufficient defence. But the El Arish—Katia—Kantara route is of a different character. Oases are more numerous, and in the vicinity of Katia and Romani, within twenty miles of the Canal, wells are plentiful, and the water, though brackish, is drunk by animals, and to a certain extent by natives. No army, British or Turkish, could occupy this region until water-pipes and a railway had been laid, but the possibility of a rapid dash had to be provided against, so the system of defence on the northern route was extended to a point much farther east than was necessary in the central and southern sections, and it included the coast of the Bay of Tina and the water-bearing area around Katia and Romani. Kantara was the base for this northern section, El Ferdan for the central, and Shallufa, where the 42nd Division was stationed during February and March, for the southern. Here trenches were dug and revetted with wooden frames and hurdles backed with canvas; miles of barbed-wire entanglements were put up; hutments of matting over wooden frames for mess and recreation, sun-proof standings for horses, and fly-proof larders were erected at the posts on the Canal banks. Gangs hauled the chain-ferry, and every one was kept steadily at work. In fact, the whole of the Canal zone for a hundred miles from Port Said to Suez has been described as a vast hive of workers; and the company humorist—who, by the way, always alluded to the desert as “the croft”—would ask plaintively: “Is it true, sir, that we’re staying here till we’ve got all the desert into sandbags?”