six
o'clock in the evening
Many of the camels had to be left behind , and those that remained were only sufficient to carry the absolutely necessary stores , the rations for the men , and a quantity of corn that would suffice but to give two feeds of eight pounds each to the animals , who were , therefore , obliged to depend almost entirely on such sustenance as they could pluck from the mimosa shrubs and the dry yellow grass . The men carried a hundred and seventy rounds each . There were a hundred rounds per gun for the artillery , but only a thousand rounds were brought for the Gardner gun , a quantity sufficient but for five minutes ' work when in action . The journey was over a gravelly plain , and the halt was made at six o'clock in the evening . Fires were lit of the shrubs and dry grass ; the camels were unloaded and fed , and were ranged in such order that in case of attack the troops could form square at the angles of the mass , and thus support each other and protect the convoy . At three in the morning the trumpets and bugles sounded . The fires were soon blazing again , and at half-past four breakfast had been eaten , the camels loaded , and the column on its march again .