THE CAMEL CORPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9042, 12 July 1917, Page 3

THE CAMEL CORPS.

In private letters to his homefolk " Trooper Bluegum," oi' the Sydney "Morning Herald" staff, "chats pleasantly about some of his experiences with camels, one corps of which he commands in Sinai. " I'm lit as a fiddle," he wrote on March 17, "fairly revelling in health and strength, despite rough tucker, bully beef (plenty of it, and good), and long, dreary rides on camels. That daring traveller and distinguished Oriental linguist, Sir Richard Francis Burton, in one of his,.books has recorded that 40 miles on .a camel is a groat feat in one day. Well, I took my section over 40 miles last Wednesday over shocking country, sandhills so steep that we had to dismount and literally drag the animals up and down the' hills. For 10 hours we wore in a. sandstorm so fierce that we couldn't see a dozen yards in front of us. I had all the time to steer by compass, but wo were lucky enough to vouch our objective. The flying sand cub our faces, and the heat blistered our lips. We only had one small water-bottle each, but our boys acted splendidly. ' Not one fell out, and we finished our journey late at night all well and ' cheerful as sand-boys.'

" You can have no idea what those sandhills are like. It's a work of arb choosing the best place for crossing. Camels are awful cattle in hilly country. They are great on level ground,, and will trot on for hours with a heavy load up. But at the. slightest hill they walk or actually stop. Tlien we have to dismoimt, and actually drag them alone; the camel is a paradox. I would just have loved it if I could have stopped to take n few snaps of us dragging those camels down a hillside almost like the side of a house. Every minute they threatened to turn turtle. They looked at times as if they wore going to turn Turk ! .-All the 'while the sandstorm made the journey such a. picnic as you don't see at Balmoral or Foti Bay. However, jwe ' got there ' all right. Our only regret was that ive came across no I Turks on the way."