But he let me have what I wanted. (I did mend the camels with oakum.) With other stores, I took eight boiler-plates, and a quantity of rivets. One of those plates, and a couple of dozen of those rivets, saved the Column. The Gardner gun of the Naval Brigade was carried in pieces on four camels. Number one carried the barrels, {253} number two training and elevating gear and wheels, number three the trail, number four, four boxes of hoppers. The limber was abolished for the sake of handiness. The gun was unloaded, mounted, feed-plate full, and ready to march in under four minutes. When marching with the gun, the men hauled it with drag-ropes, muzzle first, the trail being lifted and carried upon a light pole. Upon going into action the trail was dropped and the gun was ready, all the confusion and delay caused by unlimbering in a crowded space being thus avoided. At midday the 8th January, the Desert Column paraded for its second and final march, behind the village of Korti, and was inspected by Lord Wolseley. The same thought inspired every officer and man: we are getting to the real business at last. The Desert Column, quoting from the figures given in Sir Charles Wilson's excellent work, _From Korti to Khartoum_, was composed as follows: N.-C. Officers Officers and Men Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6 Naval Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . 5 53 19th Hussars . . . . . . . . . . . 9 121 Heavy Camel Regiment . . . . . . . 24 376 M. I. Camel Regiment . . . . . . . 21 336 Royal Artillery . . . . . . . . . . 4 39 Royal Sussex Regiment . . . . . . . 16 401 Essex Regiment . . . . . . . . . . 3 55 Commissariat and Transport . . . . 5 72 Medical Staff . . . . . . . . . . . 3 50 -- ---- 98 1509 == ==== And four guns (one Gardner, three 7-pr. screw guns), 304 natives, 2228 camels, and 155 horses. Already there were along the route at the wells of Howeiyat (left on the first march) 33 officers and men of the M. I. Camel Regiment and 33 camels; and at Jakdul 422 officers and men of the Guards' Camel Regiment (including Royal Marines), Royal Engineers, and Medical Staff, and 20 camels. {254} The Desert Column picked up these detachments as it went along, leaving others in their places.