On the 20th, at daylight, 400 Highlanders, under Colonel Stockwell, were disembarked from the transport _Bancoora_, and marched eight miles in the direction of Chalouf to make a feint attack in front. At the same time the gun-vessels _Sea Gull_ and _Mosquito_, with 200 more of the Highlanders, were also despatched to Chalouf by the Maritime Canal. The party under Colonel Stockwell returned about 4 p.m. without having come in touch with the enemy. The gun-vessels, meanwhile, had been more successful. The first that they had seen of the enemy along the Canal was a cavalry patrol, about three miles from Chalouf. On the gun-vessels approaching this latter place, some 800 infantry were discovered behind the railway embankment, which thus formed a natural intrenchment. The ships at once opened fire from their tops, to which the enemy replied, but made bad practice. This was followed by the prompt disembarkation of the 200 Highlanders, who, crossing the intervening Fresh-water Canal in boats, or by swimming, climbed up the intrenchment and carried the works with a rush, the enemy, scattered and broken, retreating across the plain. The gun-vessels then returned to Suez. With the exception of the Serapeum portion between Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, where no annoyance or interruption of traffic was expected, the whole of the Maritime Canal was in possession of the British Navy by nightfall of August the 20th. On the following day the _Tourmaline_ and the _Don_ moored permanently at Kantara, where a caravan road to Syria crosses the Canal, and there established a strongly defended post; while the gunboats in the southern half completed the link which perfected the chain from Port Saïd to Suez. Having seized the Canal, the British prepared to protect it. Between Ismailia and Suez this was effected by the _Mosquito_ and _Sea Gull_, which patrolled it constantly, no force being permanently landed. In the northern half the _Tourmaline_ and _Don_ held Kantara and the stations adjoining on either side. Strong detachments of sailors from the fleet at Port Saïd, with Gatlings, were landed at the other stations. Breastworks were thrown up and regular camps established each night. At Port Saïd a camp was pitched between the European and Arab towns, where never less than 500 bluejackets and marines were kept. Intrenchments were thrown up across the Isthmus from Lake Menzaleh to the Mediterranean, and field-pieces mounted. In the Canal itself steam launches, &c., with armed crews were used as patrols, and the fast Thorneycroft torpedo launches of the _Iris_ and _Hecla_ were employed as despatch boats.