MY SOMALI BOOK 5 



before doing so I may as well try and give some slight 

 idea of the nature of the country and its inhabitants, 

 and the possibilities that lay before us, even if this 

 involves little but a repetition of what others have 

 written before. 



Somaliland may be divided into three distinct 

 tracts of country^- — 



1. The fringe of maritime plain between the 



mountains and the sea. 



2. The maritime hills : these form ridges parallel 



to the coast, and isolated peaks, connected 

 by plateaux and low-lying valleys, and 

 separated by a loftier mountain ridge, of 

 which the Golis Range is the most noteworthy 

 part, from 



3. A series of raised plateaux to the south, gradually 



sloping down from the Abyssinian Highlands 

 in the west to the eastern coast. 



The British Protectorate occupies the north-central 

 portion, with a coast-line of some 440 miles and an area 

 of about 58,000 square miles, and extends inland in 

 the centre for from 150 to 200 miles.* 



To deal more particularly with the west-central 

 portion of the Protectorate, with which I am per- 

 sonally acquainted. Near the coast the country is of 

 a semi-desert character with little vegetation except 

 stunted thorn-bushes. Vegetation increases, with 

 thick jungle in places, as the altitude rises past the 

 stony maritime hills up to the Golis Range, much of 

 which is well-wooded. This district (between Golis 

 and the sea) is known as Guban. 



* Vide Military Report on SomalUand, 



