As I shan't be able to mention places in connection with our
movements, I shall call the station we left on December 31st A., this
place B. and so on; and I think you ought to be able to follow, as I
will make the lettering consistent.
We left A. at 2 p.m. on Friday. The men were on barges slung on either
side of the river-boat, on which various details, our officers and the
General and his staff were.
I brought my gun and 150 cartridges, and was unexpectedly soon
rewarded: for one of the A.C.C's staff came along after lunch and
asked for someone to come with him in the motor-boat and shoot
partridges. As I was the only one with a gun handy I went. We raced
ahead in the motor-boat for half-an-hour and then landed on the right
bank and walked up the river for two-and-a-half hours, not deviating
even to follow up coveys. There were a lot of birds, but it was windy
and they were wild and difficult. Also with only two guns and three
sepoys we walked over as many as we put up. Craik (the A.D.C's name,
he is an Australian parson in peace-time) was a poor performer and
only accounted for three. I got thirteen, a quail, a plover and a
hare. I missed three or four sitters and lost two runners, but on the
whole shot quite decently, as the extreme roughness of the hard-baked
ploughed (or rather mattocked) land is almost more of an obstacle to
good shooting than the behaviour of the birds. Craik was a stayer, and
as the wind dropped at sunset and the birds grew tamer he persevered
till it was dark. Then we had to walk three-quarters-of-a-mile before
we could find a place where the boat could get in near the bank: so we
had a longer and colder chase to catch up the ship than I had
bargained for, especially as I had foolishly forgotten to bring a
coat. However, when I got too cold I snuggled up against the engine
and so kept parts of me warm. Luckily the ship had to halt at the camp
of a marching column, so we caught her up in one-and-a-quarter hours.
I pitched my bed on deck up against the boiler, and so was as warm as
toast all night.
Yesterday morning we steamed steadily along through absolutely bare
country. The chief feature was the extraordinary abundance of
sand-grouse. I told Mamma of the astonishing clouds of them which
passed over A. Here they were in small parties or in flocks up to 200:
but the whole landscape is dotted with them from 8 a.m. till 11 and
again from 3 to 4: so that any random spot would give one much the
same shooting as we had at the Kimberley dams. An officer on board
told me that when he was here two months ago, a brother officer had
killed fifty to his own gun: and a Punjabi subaltern got twenty-one
with five shots.
We reached here about 2 p.m. This place is only about forty-five miles
from A. as the crow flies, but by river it takes sixteen hours, and
with various halts and delays it took us just twenty-four. We only ran
on to one mud-bank. The effect was curious. The ship and the port
barge stopped dead though without any shock. The starboard barge
missed the mud and went on, snapping the hawsers and iron cables
uniting us. The only visible sign of the bank was an eddying of the
current over it: it was right in midstream.
This is a most desolate place. Apart from the village with its few
palms and gardens there seems not to be a blade of vegetation within
sight. To the N.E. the Persian hills are only fifteen miles away. They
have still a little snow (did I mention that the storm which gave us
rain at A. had capped these hills with a fine snow mantle?)
Here we found "D" Co., which got stranded here when "A" Co. got stuck
in C. We are about forty-five or fifty miles from C. as the crow
flies, and the guns can be heard quite plainly: but things have been
very quiet the last few days. There is an enemy force of 2,000 about
ten miles from here, but how long they and the ones at C. will wait
remains to be seen.
We know nothing of our own movements yet and I couldn't mention them
if we did. We have been put into a different brigade, but the
brigadier has not been appointed yet. The number of the brigade equals
that of the ungrateful lepers or the bean-rows which Yeats intended
to plant at Innisfree. We are independent of any division.
A mysterious Reuter has come through about conscription. As it quotes
the _Westminster_ as saying Asquith has decided on it, I'm inclined to
believe it: but it goes on to talk obscurely of possible resignations
and a general election.
This may catch the same mail as my letter to Mamma from A.
_P.S._ Please tell Mamma that just as we were embarking, the S. and T.
delivered me two packages, which turned out to be the long-lost blue
jerseys. So there is hope for the fishing rods yet.
* * * * *
_Monday_, January 10, 1915.