lost to the service, but the after effects of climate are too well known to need a reference here. We had a sad experience after the Ashanti War, for I remember men being invalided and discharged two years after we had returned home, entirely owing to the germs of disease gathered on the Gold Coast.
But let us turn from this somewhat depressing subject, and go back to Suakin itself and its surroundings. There is one thing I omitted in dealing with the climate of Suakin, and that is the rainy season. They generally count upon rain during November or December, but the heaviest rain does not last more than about two days, when it comes down in real earnest and true tropical fashion, and in a way quite foreign to all but those who have experienced it. This one great downpour is followed by showers, which occur now and then, but by no means frequently. The climate is not unhealthy during this season, as it is in so many places during the rains. The temperature is highest during the month of August, and the highest point reached by the thermometer last year was 125° Fahr. in the shade; this was on the 20th of August. The official record of the temperature kept by the Royal Engineers on Quarantine Island gives
