and miners, and the ordnance commissary tents—which, with the telegraph,
railway, and other departments, are pitched near the line of railway—I
must reserve for another letter. We are only making a tour of the outside
of the camp upon the present occasion. Riding on through the native
infantry lines, and crossing a few hundred yards of open ground, we come
to the bazaar, which is on the main road to Koomaylo. The bazaar is
certainly not much to look at. Two or three dozen tents, composed of rough
poles covered with matting, constitute it. As there are no windows to any
of these establishments, it is unnecessary to state that there is no
display of goods. There is an open doorway through which any intending
purchaser enters, and asks for anything he desires. If it is kept there a
box is opened and the article produced, if not he goes into the next shop.
There is a guard of European soldiers at the entrance to the bazaar to
keep order, and their services are not unfrequently called into
requisition. During the last part of our ride we have fairly got into the
dust, which hangs over Zulla in a sort of lurid cloud, and entirely shuts
off all the view, even the nearest hills from the harbour. This dust is
terrible. It fills the eyes, mouth, and nostrils, and equals the dust on
the Champ de Mars in Paris, which I had hitherto considered unrivalled in
the world. Sometimes the wind blows steadily, and then there is one great
uniform swoop of dust; at other times it seems to lull for a while, and
then from three or four spots a straight column ascends, such as burning
piles of green wood upon a calm day might produce. These columns will
remain stationary for three or four minutes, and then move rapidly along,
and woe to the unfortunate tents over which they may pass, for they will
make a clean sweep of every light object, and will leave three inches deep
of sand on everything. In camp phraseology, these little whirlwinds are
called devils. Passing from the bazaar, still moving as before in the arc
of a circle, we come upon the railroad. The railroad has made far less
progress in the last month than anything else here has done; at this rate
it will not be near Koomaylo by next Christmas. I do not hesitate to say
that ten English navvies would have done very much more in the same time;
and as for the Army Works Corps, which we had in the Crimea, they would
have half-finished it to Koomaylo. But this delay is due to no want of
zeal on the part of those who have the direction of it, but simply a want
of method, and of materials, which are, no doubt, somewhere on board ship,
but cannot be got at. Just at this part we pass under some poles with a
fine copper wire extending between them. This is the telegraph, which in a
very short time will be open to Koomaylo, and thence will be pushed on in
a week or so, for the wire is at all the stations along the line of march;
and it would have been completed to Senafe by this time were it not that
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