We remained two days at Mkalamo, holding on while operations on the railway in this neighbourhood progressed. On 12th June we marched some six miles forward to the angle of the Pangani River where it changes direction and flows east to the sea, and there we again halted for a couple of days. Rations have been short for the past two weeks, and transport difficulties are evidently increasing behind. Moreover, most of the bridges on the railway from Moschi have been destroyed, or partly destroyed, by the enemy, so that there is delay in making use of any railway line, until hasty repairs are completed. Regarding food we are limited at present to flour, and bully beef, and tea, and sugar, no bacon, no jam, no biscuit—and bare flour, without bacon fat or lard to cook it with, is almost a “straw” ration, for flour and water dropped into a dry canteen lid doesn’t make anything digestible or palatable. But if one is hungry it is eaten, and really the men were wonderfully patient over their “dough-nuts,” and such scanty grub, even though they grew lean—for you know the popular old song beginning: “What’s the use of worrying?” which is the never-dying axiom of our ever plucky soldiers. Being much in need of meat now, I went out hunting in the afternoon of both days, but without success. Many tracks of rhinoceros were crossed in this neighbourhood, but small game is apparently very scarce. Some day, in hunting in proximity to the enemy, I expect the game will be Germans instead of buck, but it’s worth that risk of adventure, and if Germans are about in the bush, it’s as well to know it. [Sidenote: WE BRANCH OFF FROM PANGANI RIVER] _15th June._—Réveillé at 4 a.m., and soon after the column marched out. This morning we bid good-bye to the Pangani River, after having followed its course for 135 miles, and headed south in the direction of the far-off Central Railway, and Morogoro—to reach which a great area of wilderness bush would have to be penetrated. Marched to-day over unmade dust-deep tracks, and camped in the bush at night after advancing some sixteen miles. Rations dwindling; flour, tea, and sugar only issued to-day. The following day we continued onward, and, after completing some twelve miles, camped at 8 p.m., at Gitu, north-west of the considerable station of Handeni, on to which the eastern column was advancing. Rations to-day, ½ lb. bully beef, coffee, and biscuits. Next day the column continued onward into the south, and during the day emerged from wilderness bush into a country of plentiful small-croft cultivation—the first country of this kind that we have encountered since leaving Moschi. Native huts and mealie patches were on all sides amongst the bush, which is now fairly open and of fertile growth.