Page:Suakin, 1885.djvu/38

 fever. The shallow lagoons and damp marshy ground all round the north-west side of the town add considerably to the unhealthiness of Suakin. When the tide, whigh is only slight in the Red Sea, runs out, these lagoons are left exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and as they are full of filth and refuse of all sorts, the overpowering stench that arises from the foul black mud, festering and fermenting in the heat, simply defies description. The most unhealthy time of year is from August to the end of October, and during this period the battalion of Marines quartered here since May last had not unfrequently twenty per cent, of their strength sick; and at one time the percentage rose as high as twenty-five. In September, the ratio of sick per month, that is, men who passed through hospital, was equal to fifty per cent of the total strength. During the ten months, counting from May last year to February this year, fourteen hundred men passed through this battalion; that is, a total of fourteen hundred men either died or were invalided during a short period of ten months. The weekly returns from which I have collected these statistics were prepared for the information of the officer commanding the battalion, who was in Suakin the whole time himself, and