Example III

A trip of four months to distant parts of Ogádén, and to the Webbe Shabéleh river. In this case we will add a pony or mule and two fast Arab camels, luxuries which it may be worth while taking on a long trip.[61] Unlike the Somáli ones, the Arab camels each require about 7 lbs. jowári grain per diem. It can be bought in Aden or Berbera, and costs rather less than rice. There will in this case be six personal servants instead of five, as the two Arab camels will require one man, and the pony will require a groom (syce in Hindustáni). I have also slightly increased the European baggage on account of ammunition and trade goods.

As a basis for our rough calculation we shall have:—

Camel-loads.
Rations, 10 natives, 12 days10
Rations 1 European2
Private European baggage4
Spare ammunition for 10 natives and 1 European1½
Cloth and trade goods and extras2
Water for 1 European and 10 natives; and for 2 Arab camels, 1 pony, 1 donkey, 2 milk goats (19 gallons, 7 days)5½
4 months’ grain for 2 Arab camels4
29

A man’s rations for 112 days (with percentage added) will be:—

130lbs.rice
70”dates
20”ghee
add ammunition10”
water 7 days70”
300lbs.

Say 1⅟₁₁ camel-loads.

By another calculation similar to those previously employed, we shall find that we would want 64 camels and 32 baggage camelmen.

Thus we have our caravan composed as follows:—

1European.
1headman.
1personal camelman.
1syce.
1cook.
1butler.
2hunters.
32baggage camelmen.
3temporary jungle servants.
Total42Somális, 1 European.
2Arab trotting camels.
1pony for European.
64baggage camels.
6spare camels.

In my last trip to the Webbe, occupying three months, I had 55 camels and 30 men. The trip cost me about £300 altogether.

The expenses can be calculated on the lines of Example I. There will, however, be certain modifications.

Somális have a prejudice against going to the Webbe. They have great fear of fever and mosquitoes; and they have a great dread of Gállaland. They will, therefore, expect higher pay to go to these countries. On my last trip my ordinary camelmen, who would take 15 rupees per month for trips in Guban, Ogo, Haud, and Ogádén, would take nothing less than 18 rupees throughout the journey if we reached the Webbe, and 20 rupees if we reached the Gálla tribes. Circumstances have combined to place all Somáli wages at a very high figure. The pay of an Indian body servant is in India about 10 rupees per month, but if taken to Aden, the same man requires double pay, or 20 rupees per month. The Somáli, who is trained to domestic service in Aden, naturally says he will not take less than the Indian who does the same work. The Somáli at Berbera requires the same wages which he has been accustomed to get at Aden, and similar causes, together with intense laziness, independence, and avarice combined, tend to raise the price of labour in Somáliland.

If Somális are really starving, they have only to make their way somehow to the karias of their own tribe, and they will be kept in board and lodging, for up country every fighting man is worth his keep.

The Arab trotting camels, which I have recommended, could be bought in Aden, including light coolie saddles (without stirrups), for about 170 rupees each. Great care should be taken in choosing these animals, an Arab expert who can be trusted being employed. The attendant for these camels should be a Somáli accustomed to them. There are many Somális who have served in the Berbera camel police who have this qualification, but an ordinary Somáli knows nothing about them. Besides jowári and water at regular intervals, about a quart of sweet or other suitable oil per month should be carried for each trotting camel. It is a peculiarity of these camels that a large maggot is often found filling up the nostril, and when it becomes so large as to impede breathing the nostril is drenched with oil, and the maggot, sometimes half an inch thick and over an inch long, tumbles out.

In a long trip, such as is given in Example III., a rapid survey of the route would probably be made. I recommend the following instruments:—

I found the theodolite infinitely more handy than the sextant, and think the traverse, often at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, too rapid for comfortable plain table work. The tribesmen, too, would probably object to the imposing plain table and strained square of paper. The theodolite is also an imposing instrument, but it would be most used for star observations at night, when natives would be away from camp. Of the smaller instruments, duplicates should be taken. Instructions on surveying are to be found in the Royal Geographical Society’s publication, Hints to Travellers, and practical lessons in this and other special subjects are given under the auspices of the same Society.

When arranging for an expedition in which water has to be carried, 12-gallon casks should be taken out to Aden, or bought beforehand in Aden by letter. It will be advantageous to be able to padlock them, and for the bunghole to be large enough for a man’s arm to be passed in when cleaning the cask. I recommend common casks, for I have taken different shapes of specially-designed water-vessels suited (in theory) for camel transport; but Somális, who are good judges, say camels do well with a pair of large common casks. It is worth remembering that wooden or plaited bark water háns, carrying on an average seven gallons, are always to be had at Berbera (costing about 4 rupees). They go four to six on a camel, and being light, twenty-eight gallons can easily be carried in one load. But owing to incessant leakage, and to breaking, through the falling of camels and knocking against trees, there is a very great loss of water. On the other hand, if the casks are good, one is sure of the twenty-four gallon load, and the supply can be accurately controlled. Casks should be filled with water over-night and allowed to stand by the well side before a long waterless journey, so that the wood of the casks may have time to swell. Casks which have lost no water by morning may be trusted, and those which have leaked should be filled again and marked, so that they may be the first to be drawn upon on the march.

In one of my long trips I took forty-four water háns, but they caused so much vexation through leakage and so much expense for repairs, that I resolved never to use them again when I could get casks. They are, however, always to be had at Berbera, if casks have been forgotten. In buying háns it should be noted that drinking water for Europeans should be carried in wooden háns, as they taint the water much less than the bark ones. I recommend, for water-bottles, common quart whisky-bottles, which can be slipped into a leather case provided with a sling, so that it can be carried by one of the hunters. It is very convenient to have in addition half a dozen flat water-bottles made to contain a gallon each, of tin covered with thick leather; one of these could be carried on the camel which is ridden. These would, of course, most easily be made in a civilised country.

On the Webbe Shabéleh a little jowári grain can generally be purchased at the villages, though the natives, I believe, only grow it for home consumption and not for export. I would never count on getting either jowári or ghee in the interior, as every purchase of this kind means a vexatious delay, and exorbitant prices are demanded. Milk is obtainable in abundance at every karia; and, as a special favour, if it is asked for, the natives will produce fresh butter as good as that sold in England when not tainted by the wooden cup of the natives. It soon becomes sour, and it should not be counted on as a supply. I always keep two milk goats to supply milk for my own use. Somáli cow’s milk is generally allowed to get sour and much tainted by the bark vessels. Good milk may be got by sending a clean bucket for it, and having the cow milked into it.

Besides the tobes mentioned in the estimates for Example I., the following are useful minor presents in Somáliland:—

Looking-glasses.

Beads. (These should be chosen by a Somáli and bought in Aden or Berbera.)

Clasp knives.

Red shawls. (These are very much in request, and are picked to pieces and made into tassels for saddlery ornaments. They can be bought in Aden for ¼ rupee each.)

Korans or Mahomedan Bibles, which cost from 1 rupee to 3 rupees in Aden, are good presents for mullahs.

Tusbas, or praying chaplets, of ebony or sandalwood, ½ rupee to 1 rupee, procurable in Aden.

Files for sharpening spears.

Coloured handkerchiefs.

Red blankets or coloured plaids. (These and common brown blankets make good presents for important natives, and are always useful to have about the tent.)

In choosing presents it must be remembered that Somális, being very sensible people, will not be burdened in their nomad life with unnecessary articles, and will not be satisfied with glittering but useless things which might pass among negroes. Each present must be really good and useful. A Somáli will examine a gift blanket very critically.

Presents and trade articles for Gállaland can be got in Aden, and should be chosen by a Somáli or Gálla expert, who knows something of the districts to be visited. Wiláyati (European) cotton cloth, something similar to Merikáni (American), but narrower and half the price, is there the most useful kind.

If it is intended to cross the Webbe, a rope (say 2 to 3 inches in circumference and 60 fathoms long) should be taken to be stretched across the river. At Karanleh the river is some 90 yards wide, except in flood time. When this rope has been stretched across the river, the native rafts can be attached to it by running loops made of bruised creeper, and the rafts pulled to and fro hand over hand. The rope enables a caravan to cross in one day, whereas without it the passage might occupy seven days. Such a rope is easily obtainable in Aden, and weighs 40 to 60 lbs.

On very important and distant expeditions it may be worth while to take a folding boat, in order to be independent of the avaricious river negroes, who will strike for higher wages if they think you depend on their help.

When fitting out an expedition which may in the course of the journey have to change to mule or human transport, as would occur at Harar or in parts of Gállaland, it may be worth considering whether the loads should not be capable of subdivision. Thus the boxes I have recommended for holding European stores, if not very full and made a little lower, would weigh about 55 lbs. Four of these would conveniently go on a camel, two on a mule, one on a man.

I have said that “no work, no pay” should be the rule for jungle tribesmen, but in the wilder parts of Somáliland it has hitherto been the custom for passing caravans to make small presents to the heads of clans for the privilege of going through the country. This payment is something similar to the Masai hongo. The usual etiquette is for a dozen horsemen or so to arrive from a distance and perform equestrian games (dibáltig); afterwards the performers and one or two elders are given presents, and then the caravan is free to go on its way. In the territory of tribes which I know I make the present very small, say one red shawl and half a tobe to each horseman, and I give a display with blank cartridge with the men formed up in skirmishing order, as a return compliment, which is always highly appreciated.

In expeditions to Ogádén and Gállaland I recommend that Sheikh Mattar of Hargeisa, if met with on the way, be asked to write Arabic letters of introduction to Mahomedan sheikhs and mullahs. He is widely known, and has often helped me in this way. He has also assisted me by taking care of loads which I have had, on occasions, to leave temporarily at Hargeisa.

Sometimes it may be worth while to hire extra camels (at 1 rupee per diem for a camel and ½ rupee for a man) for the first few days of a journey. In my calculation I make no allowance for trophies, because of course as a trip goes on the food-loads lighten.

As regards arrangements for the security of a caravan, I consider that unless the escort is well in hand and thoroughly up to its duties it will be worse than useless when an emergency arises. I do not believe in engaging a certain proportion of the men for the special purpose of forming the escort. If so engaged they will refuse to do all other work, and will give themselves airs over the camelmen and servants. I have tried the system, and found it lead to jealousy and the shirking of duties.

In most of my expeditions I have engaged my men as headman, camelmen, servants, and guides, having first explained that every Somáli of the caravan will take his share in the common defence. When I have been making up my caravans I have first calculated the number of servants I require, and have engaged them myself satisfying myself on the spot that each either understands the use of a rifle or is capable of soon learning it. The headman has been present, so that if he has any personal objection to any of the men he may state it. I have then told the headman to bring up for engagement the number of camelmen I require, allowing him to choose his own friends; and if I find that any of these are unfit to be trusted with firearms I discard them, and tell the headman to bring others in their place. To each man I explain the special duties he is engaged for, and the duties which he will share with all the members of the caravan, and ask if he is satisfied. When the men have all been engaged at the coast I appoint a time of parade and a convenient spot on the shore, and each man fires two or three rounds of ball ammunition at a mark, under my superintendence. The ball ammunition should be brought to the spot in a bag, not served out to the men. In fact I seldom serve out any ball ammunition till the caravan has made about two marches from the coast. If it is a large amount it may be taken out for this distance on a hired camel.

After these first few shots at a mark I hold two or three parades, serving out ten rounds of blank ammunition per man at each, and practise the men in skirmishing.

The rough drill which I have always used is as follows:—

The men form up in line about half a pace apart, with carbines held perpendicularly in the right hand and close to the side (the carbine “shoulder”).

On the word “Advance” all run forward steadily, keeping a fairly good line.

On the word “Halt” they drop to a sitting position (squatting naturally, as natives do, on both heels).

“Ready”—the men load with blank cartridge.

“Present”—the aim is taken.

“Fire”—the trigger is pressed.

“Advance”—the men run forward again, taking care to take out any unexploded cartridge or to open the breech.

“Halt”—they sit as before, and wait for the word “Ready” or “Advance.”

It might be advisable, if actually attacked when on the march, to retire upon the camels the better to protect them; so the men should be practised in retiring steadily and sitting down facing the enemy to fire, on the words “Retire” and “Halt.” The Somáli should in all these practices be told the supposed direction of the enemy, and also that whenever he is given the word “Halt” he is to squat down facing the enemy. I always carry a good whistle; and when the men are advancing, retiring, or halted ready for firing volleys, I sound an alarm on the whistle, and train the men to run to me and form a rough double circle round me, outer circle squatting on their heels, inner circle standing. We then fire volleys, the idea being that the enemy is trying to overwhelm the escort by a rush to close quarters.

On the word “Advance” the men run out in a rough line facing the enemy. It is wonderful how quickly Somalis get to understand the few English words of command which are necessary, and how well they grasp the idea in each movement. This is because they are brought up from childhood among raids and skirmishes.

The headman, if he is any good, will soon learn to command the men at drill, and he should be often practised in this. The men take the greatest delight in these drills, especially if plenty of blank cartridge is given them, and when it is desirable to gain the firm friendship of a tribe and at the same time to impress the tribesmen with the efficiency of the escort, there is nothing like giving a display of this kind.

During the first few days’ march from the coast, when in uninhabited country, I accustom the men to run out quickly to defend the line of camels. Moving out to the front, flank, or rear, I blow the alarm whistle, and the men run out and sit down in line, facing the supposed enemy. A few of the worst shots should be told off permanently, their duty being to stay among the camels and guard and look after them, so that the bulk of the men will be free to attack the enemy. This duty of holding camels in an emergency is not popular, and this will be an incentive to the men to try and shine at the target practices.

The natural habit of Somális when marching with a caravan is for the two or three camelmen who are required to lead the strings of camels to be with them, while the bulk of the men either lead the way or lag behind with the last camel. The camel makadam should be among these, and whenever a camel falls or shifts its load it is Somáli etiquette for every man near to run up to its assistance. It is not generally necessary, therefore, except in very disturbed country, to tell off a rear-guard, and I do not believe in constantly worrying tired men with theories when things are practically going on well.

In very disturbed country it is advisable to make only one long march in the morning, and to devote the afternoon to fortifying the camp with a good zeríba. While it is still daylight every man should be shown his place in case of a night alarm, and at dusk, having first given notice to the men, the alarm whistle should be blown, and they should jump to their places and then be dispersed. When night falls it is the duty of the headman to see the watch-fires lit and to post the sentry or sentries required. The fires should be outside the zeríba, and screened by it, or by a bush, from the eyes of the sentry. If the glare of the fire is in his face he will not be able to see out into the darkness.

The relief of sentries, and all arrangements connected with them, are best left to the headman. I found that Somális, once posted, as a rule make very faithful and reliable sentries. The usual challenge is, “War kumá?” (Who’s there?)

By day it is not usually necessary to keep a sentry, but there are two occasions when Somális are particularly off their guard. First, at about 8 P.M., if they are grouped together eating camel meat and shouting to one another, so that nothing else can be heard; secondly, between 1 and 2 P.M., when they are generally all asleep, scattered under the shade of different trees outside the camp. If I had the conduct of an attack on Somális, I would choose one of these occasions for effecting a surprise.

The zeríba can be arranged in many ways, the principle being that it should be low enough to fire over and wide enough to prevent a rush. The zeríba of the Somáli nomads, which is often twelve feet high, shuts out all view of the outside ground, and is only a trap for men armed with rifles. From four to five feet high and twelve feet wide is a good zeríba. The great difficulty is where to place the camels, and Somális are prejudiced in favour of a circular zeríba with the camels occupying the centre, which would not, I should say, be the European way. When the camels are out grazing, or a few are sent with empty casks to a distant well, enough men with firearms should be with them to defend them, if necessary, and one man should be placed in command.

It often occurs in bush country that men lose themselves, and guiding shots are required, especially at night. The men should have blank ammunition for this purpose, and should be fined for every ball cartridge wasted in this way or fired indiscriminately at game. Firing at game by men of the caravan, except under special circumstances, should be strictly prohibited, as it causes danger to any natives or live stock that may be about in the bush, and may land the traveller in a troublesome blood-feud. Men who are paid off and sent to the coast towards the end of a trip, or who are sent down in charge of camels, should, if they are trustworthy, be allowed to take their rifles with them, and they should be given cheques for their back pay, arrangements having been made so that the cheques will not be honoured till the rifles have been safely given up. It is not fair to expect a man to go through the territory of strange tribes without his rifle, or, at any rate, a spear and something to show that he is the servant of an Englishman.

If I were organising a Somáli expedition I would begin by writing to the authorities at Aden mentioning where I wished to go, and asking whether political conditions were favourable, whether I would be allowed to enter the country through British ports,[62] and what escort I should be required to provide myself with. I would, at the same time, write to one of the Aden firms which I have named for information regarding the times of sailing of coasting steamers. The securing of a headman, on whom so much depends, may be seen to at the same time; the most reliable quarter to go to for information on this point would probably be friends who have already been a trip and can nominate a man. The name of a reliable headman, who is available, having been obtained, he should be ordered to meet the intending traveller at Aden on a named date.

Meanwhile all such articles as coats, cartridge belts, store-boxes, or Arab camel-saddle, which, if wanted at all, have to be made to order, may be prepared by the Parsi firms. On arrival at Aden the traveller, having already prepared a list of the number of men, camels, and caravan kit he will require, can procure them with the help of the headman. It may be advisable, if time is limited, for the headman to be sent to Berbera (I am assuming Berbera as the starting-point) to buy camels, camel-mats, axes, and other caravan kit, and have them ready by the time his master comes out to Aden, the funds being provided for the headman through the Aden firm acting as banker.

The simplest course, and one I have generally adopted, has been to go over to Berbera, stay in camp there four or five days, and to purchase camels and necessaries myself, with the assistance of the headman. If, however, more than forty camels are wanted, this may involve a delay of perhaps ten days.

When returning from the interior I have found it saves a good deal of worry to stay a few days in camp in the hills, and there pay off the bulk of the caravan with cheques on the Berbera agent. The men’s characters would be at the same time given them, and they would be told firmly that they need expect to get nothing more by coming up in Berbera. The bulk of the animals and kit would be sent down with the men, to be handed to the agent for sale by auction. Only a few necessary camels and men need be kept at the shooting camp, and during the two or three days’ halt the trophies can be prepared in bundles ready for transport by steamer, small delicate specimens going in the empty store-boxes; at the same time search-parties might be out looking for koodoo. During the Karíf wind it is pleasant in the hills, while at Berbera there are constant sand-storms, and so for half the day nothing can be done.

Both for a week before and after the expedition it is advisable to keep the headman, body servant, and cook to assist in the arrangements at Aden and Berbera. Berbera has been named as the most convenient port, but a start may also be made from Bulhár or Zeila; and the camels, if a very large number be required, may perhaps with advantage be collected simultaneously from all three places.

APPENDIX II
Physical Geography
WITH NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION AND MEANING OF NATIVE NAMES

The Somáli country occupies the triangle known as the “Horn of Africa,” whose eastern angle is Cape Guardafui. The coast line, beginning at Gubbet Khrab, in the north-west, runs eastward for about six hundred miles to Cape Guardafui, thence southward for eleven hundred miles to Kismáyu, near the mouth of the Juba River (Webbe Ganána).

Starting with the north Somáli coast at our port of Berbera, the first natural feature we come to is the sea-beach of sand and coralline limestone, backed by the hot, semi-desert Maritime Plain, from two to twenty miles broad, its breadth varying with the distance of the Maritime Ranges from the coast. The plain, gradually sloping upwards from the sea, rises to about three or four hundred feet at the base of the Maritime mountains, and these rise about a thousand feet higher. Beyond the Maritime mountains stony, jungle-covered, interior plains rise to the high Gólis Range, the true plateau of the interior of Africa, which is in places nearly six thousand nine hundred feet above sea-level. The country from the coast line to the foot of Gólis, some thirty-five miles inland, is called Guban. Gólis Range, with its prolongations east and west, forms the seaward face of the high interior country, which is called Ogo.

On the north Somáli coast there are harbours at Berbera and Zeila, an uninhabited creek at Khor Kulangárit, near Zeila, and the open roadstead of Bulhár, partially protected by a surf-beaten spit of sand, which runs for a few hundred yards parallel to the beach, over which at high tide small dhows can pass, but steamers have to anchor outside.

Berbera is built in two parts, three-quarters of a mile distant from one another. To the east is the native town, composed of a few Arab rubble buildings, a fort, and a large number of permanent Somáli huts of matting and poles (called agal). These huts are divided by streets, the different blocks of building space being allotted to the respective Somáli tribes, clans, and families. Three-quarters of a mile to the west is the new or official town, originally built by the Egyptians, the houses being of rubble masonry, in one story, with flat roofs. There is a good pier.

Berbera harbour, which is an excellent one, and the best to be found either on the north or east Somáli coast, is formed by a sand spit, similar to that at Bulhár, but rising above high-water mark. It starts from the native town and runs west for two miles till well beyond the official town. Inside this spit large steamers are well protected. On the shore, nearly three miles west of the new town, is a good lighthouse, built by the Egyptians before the British Government took over the north Somáli coast from them. Clearing the point of the sand spit it marks the entrance to the harbour. The water-supply is obtained from a spring near the old Egyptian fort of Dubár, eight miles inland under the Maritime Ranges, the water being brought over the Maritime Plain in pipes.

The plain immediately round Berbera is covered with white pebbles and devoid of bushes; a mile or two inland it becomes sandy and covered with a flat-topped mimósa, which is called khansa, growing here to a height of about three feet. There are also scattered thorn bushes about twelve feet high. The plain round Berbera has been greatly denuded of bush for firewood since 1885. I have watched this denudation gradually going on year after year, and have attributed it to the increased traffic since the British have been at Berbera, and to the fact that the town is now well populated all the year round, giving the bush no chance of recovering after the trade season is over. In the Maritime Ranges there are gaps, through which can be seen the towering blue line of Gólis. At a distance of about twenty miles east and west of Berbera the Maritime Ranges come down to within a mile or two of the sea, receding again at Bulhár to form a semicircle of hills with a radius of fourteen miles; then towards Zeila the Maritime Plain widens to thirty or forty miles.

This town is one hundred and seventy miles north-west of Berbera by the coast caravan track, and consists of one compact town of mat huts, with about fifty substantial Arab buildings. There is, strictly speaking, no harbour, but vessels lying off the place are protected by small islands to the north and west. The site of Zeila is low, and at high spring-tides it is almost an island. Water for the use of the town is carried in goatskins from Tukusha, three miles to the west.

For a mile or two inland the Zeila Maritime Plain is a desert of smooth sand, then there is a strip of low evergreen bush, and behind this a great open grass plain or ban, intersected by many dry river-beds, fringed with tamarisks and acacias. Travelling across this plain in 1890, my brother described it in his Journal as follows: “Except one or two low hills there is nothing to break the broad sheet of dull yellow, merging into blue haze on the horizon, here and there divided into light and dark patches by the shadows of the drifting clouds.”

This prairie rises to Eilo and Bur-ád Ranges to the south, thirty-five or forty miles inland, and stretches away to the north-west along the foot of the Tajurra Mountains nearly to the French settlement of Obok. Between Obok and Zeila is another settlement created by the French, called Jibúti, which within the last three or four years has risen into notice. The site is a promontory of coral rock, and there is a good harbour and a pier. The French are working hard to develop the place, in order if possible to make it compete with Zeila as a trade port.

At Bulhár, forty-two miles west of Berbera by the coast track, the Ayyal Yunis sub-tribe of the Habr Awal settle during the trading season, from November to April. At this time both Berbera and Bulhár are surrounded by the karias, or temporary kraals of the halted trading caravans, and these karias stretch far out into the Maritime Plain; but from May to October the town is nearly empty, a detachment of police being kept there as a guard. The Bulhár Plain is a vast expanse of bush, surrounded by blue mountains, and viewed from the sea, with the long line of white beach in the foreground, is very striking. Two very notable landmarks well known to sailors are Elmas Mountain, thirteen miles west of Bulhár, and Laba Gumbur Mado (the “two black hills”), twenty-five miles east of Berbera. Elmas rises to about 1500 feet, and is a cluster of bold peaks.

The Maritime mountains are composed principally of limestone, and some of them are nearly as barren-looking as the volcano at Aden. Here and there they are cut through by river-beds like the wádi of Arabia, water percolating slowly, hidden at various depths below a glaring expanse of dry powdery sand. Sometimes it is so near the surface that the sand is moist, and water can be got by scraping out a hole with the hands, though generally it is obtained by digging the lás, or shallow pit, through the surface sand.

However inviting these smooth stretches of sand may appear, a camp should never be pitched in the main channel. On a dozen different occasions, after heavy rain in the hills, I have seen a yellow flood, two to four feet deep and fifty yards wide, rush foaming down the dry channel of the Issutugan with great speed, rolling down in front of it a mass of branches, débris, and large boulders, and undermining the high perpendicular banks, pieces of which would drop into the river with a loud splash. At such a time the whole of the river-bed in front of the freshet has been absolutely dry, untouched by water perhaps for months. These freshets dwindle to a trickling stream in about six hours, and may cease to flow in two days. The water does not always reach the sea, as the dry loose sand of the Maritime Plain drinks it up. After one of these floods has run itself away a thin layer of mud remains deposited, which dries, cracks, and curls up into small flakes, to be swept away in a few days by the wind, leaving the surface of the sand again exposed.

At Bulhár, when there has been particularly heavy rain in the hills, the Issutugan comes sweeping down over twenty miles of river-bed and plain, and reaching the coast makes a clear cut through the high bank behind the sea-beach. When the river dries the sea-bank is again in the course of time silted up by the surf to its original height. At ordinary times the water of the Issutugan, which is a typical tug or Somáli sand-river, loses itself in the sand at So-Midgán, twenty-three miles inland from Bulhár, and sinking deep down below the Maritime Plain, collects behind the sea-bank, where it can be reached by digging.

Vast numbers of shallow pits, which render riding rather dangerous at night, are seen at intervals along the coast between Bulhár and Zeila. They contain water which is brackish, but drinkable. After being used for some time the well deepens, striking through the layer of fresh water into the underlying sea-water, and a new pit has to be dug. Where the Issutugan cuts through the Maritime hills, which it does for forty miles of its course, there is generally a tiny rivulet of water running along the centre of its bed, now and then sinking out of sight, to reappear again a mile or two below, the sand saturated with water held in suspension, forming awkward although not dangerous quicksands.

The aspect of the Maritime mountains is very forbidding. Bare precipices rise everywhere, or the hills form great rounded shoulders, having a surface of gravel sprinkled over with a wretched scrub of little brown bushes a foot high, which are generally dry as tinder. Between Berbera and Bulhár the mountains come closer to the sea, and take the form of low, table-topped plateaux of black trap rock, with fringing precipices about thirty feet deep, and a steep talus slope of débris dropping three hundred feet to the level of the river-beds which cut through these plateaux. Hegebo, near Berbera, is a typical plateau of this kind, and on the Zeila side of the British Protectorate this sort of ground covers an enormous area. On the top of the plateaux the surface has the appearance of having been rained upon by showers of black stones. Here and there tufts of feathery grass grow in the crevices, and there is light, open jungle of flat-topped thorn bushes. Everywhere there are boulders and jagged or rounded pieces of rock, so that where there are no paths caravans cannot go. The sun beating down on the polished black surfaces causes great heat, and distresses the baggage animals, and the stones are very trying to horses’ feet, even camels going better over them. The sand-rivers find their way through these plateaux from the high mountains to the sea, forming deep gullies, the expanse of sand and green bush below contrasting strangely with the black frowning heights on either side.

Between the Maritime mountains and the great Gólis Range are elevated, undulating, interior plains, intersected by river-beds and ravines running generally from south to north. These slope up in continuation of the Maritime Plain, but present greater variety of scenery; here a strip of gravel and rocky ground scantily dotted with low mimósa bushes, and cut up by torrent-beds choked with rough boulders and a tangle of savage thorns, there a wide sand-river winding through a belt of thick forest of the beautiful gudá or larger thorn-tree, with a dense undergrowth of pointed aloes, making it impossible to move about except in the sheep and game paths. Narrow strips of thorn bushes and dark green poison trees (wabé) wind down from the mountains, marking the tributary watercourses. The river-beds themselves consist of broad, flat, sandy reaches between alluvial banks, which have been scarped perpendicularly, at alternate points on the right and left, where the swirling water has undermined them with an inward sweep. Large gudá trees grow closely together at the edge of the steep or overhanging banks, their branches being covered with long drapery of armo creepers, which hang down, often as much as thirty feet, to the level of the river-bed below. Behind the jungle which fringes the banks is high grass, until the ground rises, when the red soil, exposed by the action of the rains, is worked into miniature hills and valleys. Here and there at the side or in the centre of the channel is a clump of thorn-trees, round which the sand has been washed up into a bank, and masses of driftwood are heaped round the lower branches. Between the parallel sand-rivers of the interior plains are watersheds of stony ground, very trying to travel over, the sunbeams beating down on the stony path, glittering on the points of the aloes, and being reflected like fire from the thousands of chipped rocks, scattered pieces of quartz, feldspar, and mica which everywhere crop above the surface.

Two days’ march due south of Berbera, having crossed the interior plains, we arrive at the higher mountains, rising to nearly 6900 feet. Gólis is the collective name, though Somális have a name for each flat-topped bluff, as Daar-áss (Red clay), Gán-Libah (Lion hand), Ban-yéro (Little plain), and Dig-wein (Big ears). In fact, in Somáliland every watering-place, hill, or mound, and many a prominent tree, has some descriptive name known to all the local tribes.

The Gólis Range forms a gigantic step rising abruptly on the northern or coast face, and presenting to the sea, thirty-five miles distant, great scarped precipices and bold descents, long walls of perpendicular rock, red, yellow, or gray in colour, fringing the summit for many miles. The whole interior of Somáliland presents the appearance of having, in some great movement of the earth’s crust, been elevated from the level of Guban, an abrupt break or fault occurring at Gólis Range, which seems to have been upheaved for about six thousand feet; while at Hargeisa the country is crumpled up into a chaos of hills, Guban rising gradually into Ogo in several successive steps instead of in one great fault. On the Hargeisa side the country between the levels of Guban and Ogo is called Ogo-Gudan. At the base of the fringing precipices, which are two or three hundred feet high, vast tumbled masses of rock which have slipped from the crest lie heaped together half buried among the foliage of tall cedar-trees and a profusion of forest growth, forming caves and moss-grown recesses with great variety of wild flowers, and clumps of maiden-hair fern growing in the damp crevices of the rocks. The soil is a rich black vegetable mould.

There can be no greater contrast than that between this fine mountain country and the brown sterile shores of the Gulf of Aden. Often as one looks down from the top of Gólis the whole of Guban is hidden from view by an immense expanse of white cloud lying below, resembling a storm-tossed sea, the tops of Deimoleh-Wein and other detached hills rising like islands above it. The air is so clear in the elevated interior that from a hill in the Eilo Range, above Zeila, I have recognised each separate bluff of Gólis at a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. In these hills the roar of a lion or the alarm note of a koodoo antelope can be heard echoing up the gorges for great distances.

On the northern slope, at about a thousand feet below the level of the crest of Gólis, is a ledge of broken ground, a mile or two wide, running parallel to the range for twenty or thirty miles. It is called Mirso, or “The Haven,” and is a favourite pasture of the Habr Awal and Habr Gerhajis tribes, and also good ground for koodoo. It is covered with jungle, but the soil is shallow and stony. A gigantic blue-green cactus, or euphorbia, called hassádan, grows here to a height of about forty feet, and gives a very dense shade. The sap is a white milky liquid, which pours from every cut in the tree, and if caught in cups and dried, it solidifies into a kind of rubber. The top of the range is covered with dense jungle of mountain cedar. In the gorges some of these trees, called dayeb, grow tall and straight, often four feet in diameter at the foot, and over a hundred feet high; but more frequently the dayeb forest is of comparatively stunted growth, being about forty feet high, with the trunks and branches much bent and twisted. The best trees which I saw were under Daar-áss Bluff, near Kulméye in Mirso, and on Wagar Mountain, farther east.

From the crest of Gólis the country slopes towards the south-east, falling gently towards the interior, the cedar forests ceasing at a distance of about six miles inside the crest, and opening out into grassy downs or thorn-covered wilderness. Soon, as we pass through Ogo, the Haud waterless country, from one hundred to two hundred and fifty miles across, is reached; and on its farther edge the ground again drops slightly, as at Milmil, into Ogádén, the broad broken surface of Ogádén finally sloping into the valley of the Webbe Shabéleh or Leopard river, beyond which is the Juba. Where the Haud Plateau drops at Milmil the limestone surface, which is covered with red soil, breaks up into flat-topped hills, which continue the level of the Haud, but cease a little farther south. They are covered with high durr grass, and form some of the most favourite retreats for lions. Thus the Gólis Range and its prolongations east and west are the most prominent natural feature in Northern Somáliland, forming the watershed between Ogo, the high cool country, and Guban, the arid coast belt. Guban is drained by sand-rivers and ravines, which, starting in Gólis, pass through the interior plains and cut through the Maritime Ranges, the water being eventually lost under the Maritime Plain, to reappear near the surface behind the sea-shore. I consider the whole of the Guban country to be almost valueless, except as a pasture for sheep and goats, as it is only upon reaching the high country that the soil is found to be fertile.

The Haud is the great elevated wilderness which separates Ogádén and Harar from Ogo, Guban, and the coast. The Somáli word haud is used to describe a peculiar kind of country, consisting of thick and sometimes impenetrable thorn jungle, broken up by shallow watercourses, and generally having an undergrowth of hig or dár aloes. The great waterless plateau which is generally called the Haud is really a district, and besides the variety of ground usually called haud, it includes large strips of open, rolling, grass plains called ban, or, to the south-east, semi-desert country called aror. Ban is the Somáli term for an open plain absolutely, or nearly devoid of bushes.

In the wooded parts of the Haud dense thorn jungles alternate with small glades of durr grass six feet high, luxuriating in beautiful feathery clumps, with a level red soil; ant-hills crop up at about every hundred yards, their pinnacles often rising to twenty-five feet. Some of the dead thorn-trees are to be seen standing half eaten by white ants, and the débris of fallen ones are found scattered about half-buried in the soil, where they have been swept along by sheets of water during the last rains. The remains of galól bushes attain an almost iron hardness, and many a wound have I and my followers received at night by stumbling against a gori, or jagged stump, half hidden in the high grass. There is excellent pasture in the glades and between the bushes, the Haud pastures being considered better than those of Ogo or Guban. Extensive tracts of fertile soil, of good depth, are to be found at about five thousand feet elevation, which, although, except at one or two mullah villages, none of them are under cultivation, owing to the nomadic life of the people, may yet in the distant future become very valuable. The rainfall in the higher parts of the country is ample, and the water would only require to be stored in tanks, as is done in the drier parts of India, to ensure a supply all the year round. Of course for three months in the dry season the whole of the soil is baked hard by the sun, but the same thing occurs in India. In June, when there is a hot wind at the coast, cool breezes blow over the elevated Haud, making it possible to march all day long; and although in the sun it is hot, yet in a tent pitched under the shade of a flat-topped gudá tree it is sometimes quite chilly, even at midday, while it is disagreeably so in the early mornings.

The Haud was first crossed by Mr. F. L. James and his party in the winter of 1884-85, and a description of the journey is given in his book, The Horn of Africa. Their camels were carrying loads for thirteen days without touching a drop of water. The description of the Haud in the above-named work, although I believe it to be an accurate portrait of the country passed over by that expedition, does not give any idea of the pleasant coolness and apparent fertility of the more elevated North-eastern Haud. Mr. James’s party crossed this district at almost its widest part, and in the Jilál or driest season. The plateau is traversed by several warda, or great trade routes, to the far interior from the coast, generally running nearly north and south. In the strips of ban, or open plain, often many miles wide, all caravan paths are lost, each caravan crossing independently of landmarks, and no impression is left on the growing grass. Once the ban is passed, however, all tracks will have converged into one well-worn path, or group of parallel paths. One of the most important of these is the Warda Gumaréd crossing the plateau from Hargeisa to Milmil.

The drainage from the Haud and Ogádén finds its way into the Nogal Valley, or into the Webbe Shabéleh, eventually falling into the Indian Ocean on the east Somáli coast, which is assigned to the Italian sphere of influence. In reality, the Shabéleh, I believe, does not actually reach the ocean, but falls into marshes near Mukdisha (Magadoxo). Farther south, beyond the Webbe Shabéleh and the Webbe Ganána or Juba, is the Tana River, rising near Mount Kenia in the Masai country and flowing east. The Somális make annual raids as far south as the Tana, to within a few days’ march of Lamu on the east coast, but, as far as we know at present, the permanent Somáli country may be considered to lie well to the north of the Juba. Most of this river lies in Gállaland, and its sources have been scarcely touched by any European explorer, except, perhaps, by the Italian explorer Captain Bottigo.

I have said that some of the highest ground in Somáliland is the great upheaval of Gólis, continuations of which stretch far away to the eastward, parallel to the sea-shore as far as Cape Guardafui, forming the bold, almost unexplored coast line which is visible from the decks of steamers passing along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. But there is a still higher mountain system, that of the Harar Highlands, up to the foot of which the Haud Plateau extends. The Haud gradually falls towards the south-east, and rises ever higher the farther one goes westward, its north-west angle being occupied by the high ban known as the Marar Prairie. This magnificent expanse of open grass land is fifty-six miles long by thirty-five broad, having an area of nearly one thousand square miles, and an elevation ranging from 4900 feet to 6300 feet. There are a few grassy knobs like the Subbul hills which rise singly out of the plains to nearly 7000 feet above sea-level.

In the Jilál season the Marar Prairie is a sheet of yellow grass, quite dried up, but still containing nourishment—the varieties being chiefly darémo, dihe, and durr, all three having valuable fattening qualities for horses or camels. After the first rains the young grass begins to come up in patches of vivid green, the old, longer grass falls, and soon the plains are entirely covered with a carpet of rich green turf, short and crisp, inviting a gallop, and having almost the appearance of unlimited English pasture. The soil is red and powdery. Some of our camps on the plains were between 6000 and 7000 feet above sea-level. The country is probably similar to the South African veldt, the great elevation in a measure compensating for the nearness to the equator.

There is heavy rainfall, the Marar Prairie partaking of that of Harar and Abyssinia, but the water sinks to a great depth, so that with the exception of temporary rain-pools the surface is waterless. There are, however, many permanent watering-places in the jungle-covered hills and broken ground bordering the prairie to the north and west, and in the Harar Highlands, whose lofty summits can be seen overlooking the western edge of the plain, some of them rising to over 10,000 feet. The Somális say there is sometimes ice on these mountains, and that people die of cold.

The Marar Prairie supports enormous masses of game, and I have had many a good day’s sport upon it, which will never be forgotten. Although this is the largest ban which we have actually circumscribed and measured, it may not be larger than many others in unexplored parts of Somáliland, but is probably the best in quality. Some of the low-lying ban—as, for instance, that of the Zeila Maritime Plain—is of very poor quality, and this is partly why the Esa is not a mounted tribe. I am told by Dolbahanta tribesmen whom I have taken to Marar, that there are similar elevated plains at the back of the unexplored Warsingali country. There are many other fine patches of ban in the Haud which have been explored by us, as at Aror and Toyo.

My brother, while passing through the Esa country, wrote in his Journal: “After leaving Doleimalleh we came across a strip of plain which seemed to afford an example of the manner in which the ban is formed. There were miles upon miles of dead and bleached thorn-trees, about twenty feet high, evidently vigorous some ten years ago. These had either been killed by very heavy floods, as the ground is flat and water does not drain off easily, or they had been destroyed by extensive fires. Among these trees were scores of red ant-hills, eight or ten feet high, and many of the dead trees were overwhelmed by them, just a branch or the part of a trunk projecting here and there. When the trees have all been eaten the termites no doubt leave, and their mounds are washed away by rain and wind, leaving behind only a vast grassy plain.”

The extreme north-western angle of the Marar Prairie is marked by a hill called Sarir Gerád, and from its base the ground falls abruptly to the north into the Harrawa Valley in the Gadabursi country, and to the west into deep gorges which lead towards Gildessa. The bushes cling in a sharply-defined line to the rugged hills of denudation into which the high prairie breaks up. The general formation of these hills is mountain limestone, much eroded in the ravines by the chemical action of water, and weathered into holes and caves, lined with deposits of stalactite. Some of the torrents which descend to the east of Sarir cut through deep alluvial deposits, leaving overhanging earth banks eighty to one hundred feet deep. The whole of this wild and mountainous region is very remarkable and picturesque, and the more interesting to a sportsman because, together with the Harrawa Valley, it is still visited at the right season by two or three herds of elephants. The average elevation of this valley is about 5000 feet above sea-level, and it has deep alluvial soil cut up by ravines with perpendicular banks. The vegetation is very luxuriant, the predominating kind being the hassádan or euphorbia, which here grows to a height of from thirty to sixty feet. There is a great variety of flowers, and the grass is excellent in this valley, which stretches away several days’ journey into the Esa country.

It can be well understood in a country of such an extended area, and varying so much in elevation, that a large variety of plants and trees exists; and in addition to the vegetation already noticed there are many bushes and trees which one learns to recognise in the course of a journey. It is of course impossible to mention them all, but the following are a few of the most conspicuous:—

The most thorny of all the bushes I consider to be the billeil. This horrible bush grows to a height of about ten feet, and is covered with small curved hooks of great strength which cannot be disregarded. The sockso, adad, galól, khansa are other more or less thorny bushes which are met with everywhere. The adad produces the best gum-arabic (hábag), large transparent knobs the size of a pigeon’s egg being visible in the joints of the branches. The galól is a twisted, straggling, and untidy-looking thorn-tree, growing to a height of fifteen to twenty-five feet, the root being used for hardening and making watertight the bark háns or water-vessels used by Somáli caravans. The branches have very little strength, and are useless for building platforms in when watching for game. There are thorns over an inch long, each springing from a white bulb.

The jungles in Ogádén chiefly consist of the galól and the khansa. The giant euphorbia called hassádan grows in the hills and in the Haud, seldom much above or below five thousand feet. The derkein is a tree allied to the hassádan, but it is found at a lower elevation, and is very common in the Dolbahanta country, growing in thick compact groves, and within these groves it is the custom of the natives to bury their dead. Two large thorn-trees of great beauty are the gudá and the wádi. The gudá has a dark stem and grows to a height of from thirty to fifty feet, spreading out to an umbrella top and giving excellent shade. The wádi has a whitish stem and spreads out like the gudá, but more symmetrically, and is ornamented with white thorns about five inches long. The kedi and the mégag are conspicuous trees. The kedi grows without a branch for about eight feet, and then breaks out into a compact rounded mass of long, green, soft thorns, growing one out of the other, in the same way as a prickly pear. The mégag is much the same in shape, but there are no thorns, and it breaks out into small twisted branches, matted together, with tiny blue-gray leaves. Another tree is the garas, having leaves like a laurel, while the roots and bifurcations of the stems contain deep recesses which often hold drinking water after rain. The wabé, or dark green poison-tree, is very common in the mountains, a concoction of arrow-poison being made from the roots. The athei is a small bush with gray leaves, the twigs of which form the native substitute for a toothbrush in Somáliland. Ergin is a slender, green, grass-like bush of the cactus kind, with a milky sap, which forms dense cover and is often the resort of leopards. Dár and hig, the latter of which produces excellent rope-fibre, are varieties of the aloe, and cover enormous areas. There is no ground more favoured by the lesser koodoo.

Of the largest trees the most conspicuous are the darei, a fig-tree, and the gób, a very large thorny tree growing on the banks of river-beds, with edible berries of an orange colour, the size of a cherry, and containing a large stone. In taste they resemble apples, and are delicious eating. The tomaiyo is a root like a knotted swede, growing three inches below the surface in the soft red soil of the Haud and Ogádén. It is green and purple outside, and inside consists of a white watery pulp which will allay thirst. This plant is difficult to find, and has to be burrowed for. Armo, a vividly green creeper with large, fleshy, heart-shaped leaves, covers all the trees by the river-beds, hanging festooned like a curtain, and turning the gudá thorn-trees into natural shady bowers. Of the three best grasses already mentioned as growing in the Haud, the durr grows to about six feet, the darémo to about fifteen inches, and dihe to about four inches. All these grasses curl and twist about very much, the durr spreading out into branches like a bush. The favourite cover chosen by a lion is in nine cases out of ten either durr grass, khansa forest, or the reeds (alálo) growing at the margin of a river-bed.

The Somáli climate is on the whole very dry and bracing, and there is no malarial fever to speak of except on the Webbe Shabéleh river.

In the Maritime hills the highest shade temperature I have registered is 118° Fahr. at midday, and on the cool elevated Haud country the temperature just before sunrise has often been as low as 56° in June. The lowest temperature I ever registered was 49°.

During the months of July, August, and September 1892, my brother took daily five or six observations with barometer and thermometer. The following shade temperatures, taken at random from his tables, may be of interest:—

Date.Place.Elevation in feet above sea-level.Time.Thermometer.
°Fahr.
July 4-8Berbera358 A.M.94½
12.15 P.M.99
6 P.M.99½
9.30 P.M.95
” 17-20Hargeisa Wells39386.30 A.M.67
8 A.M.67
Noon.82
5.25 P.M.80
9.5 P.M.74½
” 23Kheidub-Ayéyu (Haud)38411.30 A.M.56
5 A.M.61
Noon.83
9 P.M.75
” 25-28Gagáb (Milmil)34295 A.M.63
Noon.85
2.30 P.M.82
9 P.M.68
August 8-10Waror (Jerer Valley)41614 A.M.59
6.30 A.M.63
9.30 A.M.69½
1 P.M.84
3 P.M.85
” 31Harrhé57611 P.M.80
2 P.M.75
Sept. 3-5Makanis (Marar Prairie)62096 A.M.56
7 P.M.65
” 9Kalerug63103.30 P.M.72½
” 10Sarir Gerád63306 A.M.56
” 24Biyo Kabóba3353Noon.103½
” 25-26Hassein Gedíchi22525 A.M.67
” 30Lehellu102 P.M.93
October 4Zeila453 A.M.84
10 P.M.85