MORTALITY AMONG BRITISH TROOPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1417, 26 November 1886, Page 3

MORTALITY AMONG BRITISH TROOPS.

An rfficer attached o the British camp at Assouan Rives a dinml acc >unt * f the suffering of the He — Tois is a small mnd village on the left bank of the Nile, near the Second Cataract but has greatly it creased in importance since our occupation. It is merely a gi*goQ patch, or s small muster if datepalms and wafer-melon , in the midss of the desert. All oronnd ne is trackless sand, and black reeky hills, like bronze, dotted here and there on the surface. There is never such ft thing as a d:' p rtin. and, all long thi) sun blssss* forth without even a cloud to y rolt ct the earth from its rays. ffhe-e ia nearly always a fiery blast blowing, which carries burning sand in clouds into every possible place, and gets into your ears, mouth, n-se, and eyes, to the "stent injury cf-the latter. Uhe tempen.tuie ranges from HOdeg to 124des, and has got up roveral times to 126 deg. Ten iwn died one day in Jane iron runetroke and enteric. I have seen six c-ffias going down the hospital hill t<-gethv.r ; aod one time there was so miioy- deaths that there wts no room in the mortuary, and we had i*> placs cur dead in rows on the sind ai d cover them with canvas The medial Staff had frightful w.’k, up all night with men In the mania of fever, who conver-ed the fever wards into a lunatic asylum with their yells and frantic gus'ures Nearly all who died were young men between nineteen and twenty-two years. They were generally ill about four d-.y?, and then died like raving mania's Over 1200 men have gen} down livar invaffded, many of whom dit-d at p’acps on th., way, and had to be buried without c. fli is and In the sand. We lost a lot of officers, including two majors. AH day long nothing med to be heard but the band pi y ing the dead march in ‘ h aul ’ Nothing rem ins here new o“ the splendid r* gmeats that cans un the liv r » y-;ar or s* ago, but miserable i-comp eti-l-'. kion BOU’ds o' men, more suitabl - for a c uvaJescent home than act vs serves.”