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[page 3]
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fall in at 3.30. As usual with detachments leaving during the night all officers of the Camp turned out to see us off despite the cold which in Egypt, even in Summer makes early rising unpopular. Camp was left at 3.45 and we entrained at a Siding a mile of two away, shortly after 4.30. The train consisted of 30 open coal trucks which had to accommodate about 30 men each as, with other units our detachment consisted of about 900 men. The train did not leave until 7 o'clock so we had to spend a couple of hours in the cold darkness in the open trucks. No special provision was made on the train for Officers, so we had to satisfy ourselves with the coal trucks. The country between Cairo and Alexandria opens ones eyes to what irrigation can do. The whole country side as far as you can see is a brillint green - crops of every kind growing in profusion. This particular district is Nile Delta country and is in addition watered by numerous canals, cross ditches etc. The method of Agriculture is very primitive - same as has been in use for thousands of years. The plow is just a wooden structure with a single wooden spike for tearing up the ground, the reaping is done with a hand sickle - generally by the women and children, mostly the children, the women being used to carry the loads into the markets. Women are more plentiful and cheaper than donkeys or camels so their labour is availed of to the utmost, and I must say that in all the places I have been I have never seen a better carriage or a more graceful walk than is possessed by these Egyptian women. The reason is easy. The load which is carried on their head is in a basket about the size used a clothes basket on washing days in Australia, and this is heaped up with cloves or