The rice ration for 14 Somális for 42 days will be 588 lbs.; add ⅙ for guests, and we have 686 lbs. Rice is sold in bags containing each about 170 lbs.; and before starting on a trip each bag should, for convenience of loading, be broken up into three long sausage-shaped bags, called loghs. Two bags of rice, or six loghs, make a camel-load.

Thus we have, rice, 2 camel-loads. The dates ration for 14 Somális for 42 days will be 294 lbs.; add ¼ for guests, and we have 368 lbs.

Dates are sold by the gosra, weighing about 130 lbs., enclosed in a rough reed basket or bag. For convenience of transport this is divided into two parts, and two gosras, or four half gosras, go upon one camel.

Thus we have, dates, 1½ camel-loads.

The ghee ration for 14 Somalis for 42 days will be 1176 oz.; add for guests, and we have 1764 oz., or 110 lbs. The ghee is sold by the gumba, a goatskin bag closed at the mouth by a framework of sticks and a lump of clay. Each gumba contains 25 lbs. ghee or less. We will suppose the 110 lbs. ghee is carried in five gumbas, weighing with their contents 145 lbs. Thus we have, ghee, ½ camel-load.

It tends to cheerfulness if a small supply of native coffee, tobacco, and salt be carried for the men. The tobacco is chewed, and the coffee is drunk before early marches on cold mornings. These extras weigh very little.

Next we have to calculate for the stores of one European for 42 days. I recommend that several wooden boxes be made, measuring about 1 foot 6 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, and 1 foot 3 inches deep, capable of being padlocked, with the cover on hinges, and two rope handles for convenience of handling. All the liquids which have to be kept in bottles may go in one box, and all the tinned and other stores in another, the pair containing a fortnight’s supply, and each loading up to about 65 lbs.

The liquids will be something like the following (a fortnight’s supply):—