We had now mapped the Dolbahanta country to the head of the Nogal Valley, and the time had arrived for our return to the coast.[19] We ran the gauntlet of the begging Arasama elders back to Eil Dab, and then struck due south, crossing Bur Dab Range by a pass called Laba Gardai, which descended into the Waredad Plain below. While we were in camp at Eil Dab some of our escort, losing patience, began firing with blank cartridge at the excited mob of Arasama who were pressing round camp demanding tobes. The elders brought in what they declared to be a wounded man, and made the occurrence the text for a further demand that we should pay blood-money or fight the tribe; but we found it was only an old half-healed scar, and laughed at them.
A trading caravan, anxious to go to Berbera, but fearing the robbers who infest Bur Dab, took advantage of our protection for the next few days. In this caravan the women were to the men as six to one, and had it been attacked when alone it would have fallen an easy prey to a small party of raiders. To place so much valuable property almost entirely in the charge of defenceless women is putting temptation in the way of the robber bands, and often the owners have only themselves to blame.
We reached Arregéd, a deep ravine in the middle of the Bur Dab Range, and during the night two men were seen skulking in the bush near camp. On the 20th, taking three men and a theodolite, I ascended Bur Dab, and choosing a station for star observations, spent the night on the top of the hill. In the morning before descending to camp we explored the interior of the range, and found that all the plateaux of which it was formed dropped sheer down into a large basin seamed by watercourses and tunnelled everywhere by caves. The regularity of the strata and their water-worn appearance led us to believe Bur Dab to be composed of stratified limestone rock, and not a volcano, as stated by some Italian travellers. Possibly they confounded Bur Dab and Bur Dáb, the former meaning “rocky hill,” and the latter “hill of fire.” The caves inside afford a secure retreat for robbers, who, indeed, are said never to leave the mountain.
On going down to camp I found that E⸺ and his own followers had been kept on the alert throughout the night by men prowling round them. They were distinctly visible in the moonlight, but E⸺ would allow no firing, as they made off whenever he went out to see who they were. On our return to Berbera we heard that fifty robbers had reconnoitred our Arregéd camp, and had made off westward for Kirrit, thinking we had come to Bur Dab to look for them. For having been severely handled in their attack on Colonel Paget’s party, they did not care to come into collision with Europeans again. Further native information was given us regarding this attack, it being reported to us that the robbers had lost three killed and ten wounded. As we did not actually visit Colonel Paget’s camp, however, we could hear no reliable account of what happened.
Marching through the Habr Toljaala country, we reached the eastern continuation of Gólis Range and descended by the Huguf Pass. Near Huguf we divided our caravan into two parts; I marched to Berbera via Karam, while E⸺ ascended Wagar Mountain, two days’ march to the west of Huguf, to take observations. He marched over very steep and rolling ground, gradually ascending, and then through a narrow gorge to Sisai, at the back of Wagar. Sisai is a grassy hollow between the two principal peaks of Wagar, which are called by different names, the peak to the east being Bakáwa, and the one to the west, and highest, Tawáwur (nearly seven thousand feet). Everywhere the hills are clothed with thick vegetation, and the grass is succulent and green, and many fat cattle of the Mahomed Esa were seen. The trees are chiefly mountain cedar and hassádan, a kind of euphorbia, affording a dense shade. The party ascended Tawáwur from Sisai by a good path, passing through heavy timber of cedar and hassádan, the soil everywhere being hidden by the rich vegetation. About half-way up the party reached a long glade of green grass two feet high, which wetted them to the knees as they walked through it. At the side of this glade the cedar-trees were straight, and starting with a girth of from ten to fifteen feet, rose to a height of ninety to one hundred feet, the hassádan trees also attaining a height of about seventy feet. Opening out from this glade in all directions were excellent paths through the forest made by elephants, and plunging into one of them, they reached the top of Tawáwur. They climbed on to an enormous boulder capping the top. Looking over a vast expanse of white clouds, they waited for them to clear away, but after four hours a dense fog came up and necessitated a retreat. E⸺ saw countless varieties of birds, and heard the voice of a panther come up from the valley below, and at times koodoo antelopes could be heard crashing through the jungle as the party advanced. About thirty varieties of flowers were gathered, of great beauty.
E⸺ made two ascents of Tawáwur and one of Bakáwa, and working down the spurs of Bergéli, he reached camp at Asseil. It was very cold at night at Sisai, and the temperature throughout the day was 70°, except at noon, when it rose to 78° Fahr. E⸺ then descended again with his caravan to the plain below Huguf, and marching to the coast, reached Berbera a few days before I arrived by the coast route from Karam.
The expedition to the Dolbahanta country was followed by a second to the Jibril Abokr sub-tribe of the Habr Awal, living in the hills north-west of Hargeisa and in the open plains near the Harar border. We took twenty-three men, of whom sixteen carried rifles, and there were twenty-four camels. The caravan left Berbera on 21st May, going south-west. We made a moonlight march to Nasíya tree in the Maritime Plain. Next day we came upon an immense cloud of locusts, which were seen daily till the 26th,[20] often darkening the sky.
On the 28th we ascended a plateau just under the crest of Gán Libah,[21] which is the farthest west of the Gólis bluffs, and a most conspicuous landmark; and it was on the highest point of Gán Libah, at an elevation of six thousand feet, that we chose our theodolite station. We climbed the mountain to a point some four miles south of the edge of the bluff, and camped; and next morning I made an exploration through the cedar forests to the highest point, from which the whole of the low country to the north can be seen, including Berbera and Bulhár. I found, however, that owing to the steep nature of the ground, it would be impossible to get the theodolite uninjured to the station which we had chosen. We subsequently found the three points, Berbera, Bulhár, and Gán Libah, very nearly formed an equilateral triangle, with a side of about forty-two miles.
The distance covered by the exploration was only eight miles, but it occupied five hours, as the mountain was fearfully cut up by deep ravines, while the high trees, growing close together and festooned with creepers, thoroughly obstructed the path. At the edge of the bluffs are cliffs on every side, and a beautiful jungle with a great variety of flowers and plants, especially nastertians, maiden-hair fern, and mosses. We struck camp and made for the lower plateau, losing ourselves among a network of steep ravines, but eventually we reached a plain from which stood out a rounded rock called Dagah Kaburáleh, and we camped in a grassy hollow at its foot.