"
Lieutenant Kitchener reported for duty in Palestine, in the Fall of
1874. The exploration party was then working in the hill country south
of Judah, which was still a sealed book to the rest of the world.
Their job was "to search in every hole and corner of the country and
see what is there, and classify everything in proper form"--to quote
the words of their prospectus. For this work they required both the
surveyor's instrument and the camera.
In the use of the latter, Kitchener had shown aptitude at school; and
it is said that this fact had something to do with his appointment. It
is evident from the first official report that he "made good." His
chief, Lieutenant Conder, states that he succeeded in securing some
excellent photographs "under peculiarly unfavorable circumstances."
The climate did not set well with him at first, and after two attacks
of fever he recovered his health sufficiently to take part in the Dead
Sea work of 1875.
At Wady Seiyal, reports Conder, "we were caught in the most tremendous
gale which we have yet experienced in tents; and our next march of
nineteen miles in a perfect hurricane of bitter wind, with showers of
sleet and hail, necessitated by the fact that all our barley and other
stores were consumed, was the hardest bit of experience we have yet
encountered.
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