42 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
dead on the other side, and one of my ponies did not sur- 
vive the ordeal long. One of my mules got so much water 
in his lungs that he died two days afterwards. We were at 
last across, and should have been thankful, but the drown- 
ing of the camel-man, and the loss of two ponies and a 
mule, cast rather a gloom over our otherwise exulting 
spirits. We had had no rain now since we left Lafkei, 
and the river valley was very hot, the mean temperature 
for each twenty-four hours averaging 88° Fahr. 
After a night’s rest I sent menin all directions to see if 
they could find traces of natives, while I ascended the 
range of hills immediately to the west of the camp, from 
the top of which I could see far inland, the country appear- 
ing like a vast undulating plain, covered with the usual 
dried-up brush one sees in Somaliland. But a short time 
was allowed me, however, to take compass bearings, as I 
soon heard a shot in the valley below me, not far off, and, 
on hastening to the spot, found that some of my boys had 
captured a youthful Galla. They had fired in the air to 
frighten him, so that they might stop his flight. 
It was most necessary to find some native who could tell 
us a little of the country ahead ; otherwise, if we left the 
river, we could not know when we might find water, or 
what sort of obstacles we might encounter, so I had 
ordered my boys to capture any native they might see, 
provided they did him no bodily harm. The young pris- 
oner was too much frightened at first to give us any infor- 
mation, but I took him back to camp, hoping soon to gain 
his confidence. Here I found that some more of my boys 
had caught another native, who proved to be more intelli- 
gent and communicative than the first. 
One party of eight of my boys remained out all night, 
returning late the next morning. They said they had 
found a small river flowing into the Shebeli, about twenty 
