Pelusium: Divisional Headquarters. Signal Company. Headquarters, R.E. Divisional Squadron, D.L.O.Y. 126th Infantry Brigade. A Battery, 211th Brigade, R.F.A. 2nd Field Company, R.E. 2nd Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. Attached—100 Bikanir Camel Corps. Romani: C Battery, 210th Brigade, R.F.A. A Battery, 212th Brigade, R.F.A. 1st and 3rd Field Companies, R.E. 125th and 127th Infantry Brigades. 1st and 3rd Field Ambulances, R.A.M.C. The remainder of the Artillery and Divisional Ammunition Column were at Kantara and Ballah. [Sidenote: _Camels and other “Pets”_] Reference has been made to the arrival of the camels on the night before the march of the 127th Brigade to Mount Royston. The Ship of the Desert henceforward played so important a part in the operations of the Mobile Column that gratitude demands a few words of appreciation. A hundred, more or less, with from thirty to forty native attendants, were apportioned to each battalion, and the troops by now would have been unimpressed if a squadron of elephants had been dumped upon them. The camels and their satellites were placed in charge of the odd-job subaltern, the sergeant surplus to Company strength, and the few simple men who would volunteer to trudge alongside a grunting, grumbling, snapping mass of vermin and vile odours, and listen to its unpleasant internal remarks, while gazing upon its patchy hide and drooping, snuffling lips. British soldiers are notoriously fond of animals, and will try to make a friend of anything with four legs, or even with none,[8] and no doubt some of these volunteers had visions of their sloppy, shambling charges eagerly responding to affection, answering to a pet name, and turning soft eyes of devotion upon the beloved master while he fondled it. If so, they were quickly disillusioned, and soon they became prematurely aged men, bitterly regretting the impulse that had led them to volunteer. The native gentlemen had apparently been chosen for their knowledge of the English language—some could even count up to four in that tongue!—their gambling propensities, their detestation and ignorance of camels, and their appearance of abject misery. By the camp fire, at the end of the day’s march, they became more cheerful as they compared thefts, smoked vile cigarettes, and babbled of the riotous time they would have in Cairo when they returned with their accumulated wealth. They were handy men, however, and the Lancashire lad regarded them with kindly tolerance, touched with the wondering pity he extends to all who have never watched Manchester United play Bolton Wanderers.