3-021-399 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Abyssinian Expedition: a sketch on the shore at Zulla, Annesley Bay, 1868. Engraving of a sketch by Captain F. F. Atkinson, of the 45th Regiment (British Army). '...a stirring and bustling scene meets the eye: men of various nations are hurrying to and fro, some...loading trucks with stores and provision of all sorts; others disembarking cattle, mules, camels, and elephants...Officers and men of all the services are working like slaves, dressed in every conceivable costume...In passing along the pier, one is warned by the desperate screech of an approaching engine to get out of the way...A condensing-engine, [right]...is working day and night, filling water-tanks for the numerous fatigue parties employed in its vicinity and also for the use of the locomotives, which refuse to drink salt water. At these tanks...an average number of 6000 animals daily receive their supply of water...Horses, in their mad desire for water, often break the rein and halter, and gallop furiously down to the tanks...Their Indian drivers and attendants drink at the same time with them, side by side...About 600 yards up the railway, the line crosses the track taken by the transport train across the sandy plain on the first day's march towards Senafe'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.