Page:Suakin, 1885.djvu/51



dawn was just breaking on Sunday, the 8th of March, as the barges came alongside to put us ashore. It was a most lovely morning, and the air so clear and bright that one could distinguish every feature in the mountains miles away inland. The sun was just showing itself above the horizon as we landed at one of the piers of Quarantine Island, and even at this early hour gave promise of the heat of the coming day. My company was sent on with a guide to show us where our camping ground was to be. We marched along the field railway for about a mile, leaving the town of Suakin behind us; and as we advanced H.M.S, Dolphin opened fire over our heads at some groups of the enemy five miles away on the desert. We could see the great shells pitch and throw the sand up into the air thirty or forty feet high.