– is to be found on the morning following, when the miseries of the past two days are partially compensated by a short period of comparative coolness, after which the heat, like a giant refreshed, comes on more rapidly than ever (the temporary lull seeming to be only reculer pour mieux sauter).
And now that several thousands of our countrymen are committed to spending a summer on the Nile – a pleasant-sounding term, in which, however, there is more than meets the eye – let us consider what can be done to mitigate its severity.
Those whose term of similar punishment commenced at an earlier date than that of most of their fellow-sufferers – viz., this time last year – may be credited with a certain amount of personal experience on the subject, and probably found in the Soudan, as indeed in all tropical climates, that, of all antidotes against the foe, shelter, clothes, and food for body and mind, are the most important to be considered. As regards the first, Sir Samuel Baker is of opinion that the native contrivances of mud-walls, mats, and palm-branches are the best, and he emphatically pronounces against any attempt to live in boats or upon the water. It may be presumptuous to go against such a first-class authority, but there can be no doubt that the friendly refuge of a dahabiah during a sand-storm is not to be despised; and probably, on some parts of the line of communication, rafts thoroughly well sheltered by grass-mats might be used advantageously – at all events for the sick, and especially for eye cases, of which a large number may be expected. In the neighbourhood of a cataract, however still the day on shore may be, there is always a ghost of a breeze on the water; and a system of mats all round the raft, while not of a sufficient thickness to keep out the wind, would obviate the glare, which is a most painful accompaniment of sun on the water. The principal difficulty of raft-making would be a want of proper wood for the purpose – palm, which is the only available large timber, being spongy, and possessing no buoyancy whatever. On shore nothing probably is better than well-built huts, composed either exclusively of grass-mats, or with walls on the three sunny sides; the fourth side – having a northern exposure, from which point the wind blows six days out of seven – being composed of mats, which, with plenty of palm-leaves, should form a double roof. These mats, of course, while affording no protection against, but rather serving to admit the scorching wind, will to a certain extent mitigate and break its intensity; and though an actually lower temperature can be obtained by mud-walls and exclusion of air, it is a question if this is more wholesome or less unbearable than the fresher and natural though more ardent heat. In most of the stations where our troops will be, there is a good deal of natural shade from trees and rocks. At Dal, for instance, we noticed that the commandant had, by excavating under the shade of a precipitous rock, been able to pitch a lashkar-pal tent so far in the shade that the sun never touched one side at all, while upon the other it never descended in direct rays. Probably few places possessing such natural advantages could be found – and of course later on, when the sun is higher in the zenith, nothing short of an overhanging rock would afford shelter from the more vertical rays; but the system of excavating several feet under either tents or huts makes a very great
