6 MY SOMALI BOOK 



South of the Golis is Ogo, a district composed of 

 comparatively flat country varying in character from 

 thick thorn jungle to open scrub and grassy plains, 

 which passes into the Haud, a great elevated undu- 

 lating plateau that in and after the rain}^ season 

 affords excellent pasture, but for some months in the 

 year is waterless. Its surface is covered with jungle, 

 sometimes very thick, sometimes fairty open, inter- 

 spersed with areas of rolling plain ; toewards the east 

 of a semi-desert character. Through the Haud runs 

 the Anglo- Abyssinian boundary, a somewhat arbitrary 

 line fixed by the Agreement of 1897, previous to which 

 the British sphere of influence extended vaguely 

 further to the south. 



Of rivers there are in British Somaliland practically 

 none. But there are many shallow sandy water- 

 courses, which heavy rains fill with rushing streams 

 for an hour or two, and as these subside leave pools 

 that, except in the dry season, are an important source 

 of water supply. But these and the pans of water 

 in casual depressions dry up quickly with the cessation 

 of the rains — dry up is hardly the right expression, as 

 the trouble lies in the porous nature of the soil, which 

 fails to retain the water on its surface. It follows that 

 in the dry season wells are the only source of water 

 supply, and these may be several days' journey apart. 



It is a mistake to suppose that Somaliland is 

 nowhere fertile, witness the vegetation on the Golis 

 or in parts of Ogo-Guban. As a matter of fact, there 

 is no lack of fertile soil and the rainfall is not deficient, 

 so that the only thing necessary to complete the 

 requirements of an agriculturist is the construction of 



