GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS 



some of the most characteristic habits of the Somali. 

 But since climatic and physical conditions are so 

 intimately connected with, and have so profound an 

 influence on, the character and habits of the natives, I 

 must first briefly recapitulate the main geographical 

 aspects of the country. 



In the whole of Jubaland there are no permanent 

 rivers or streams except the Juba and the Tana, and 

 no permanent water-holes except the wells at Wajheir, 

 Eil Wak, Afmadu and Fungal in the north, and a 

 few fresh-water springs along the coast. A glance at 

 the map will immediately show the large tract of 

 country where desert conditions must therefore of 

 necessity prevail. At all times sparsely inhabited, 

 the interior is completely deserted during the dry 

 season, the Somali with their cattle, goats and camels, 

 movine south to the Tana, west to the Lorian and 

 north and east to the permanent wells and the Juba. 

 The word "desert," which is applied to this waterless 

 region, immediately conjures up a picture of waste 

 stretches of rolling sanddunes, such as are found in 

 parts of the Sahara, or the wide open plains with bare 

 volcanic ridgfes so characteristic of the oreat desert 

 areas of Western America and North- West Mexico ; 

 but very different conditions prevail in Jubaland. 



The whole of the reorion with which I am now 

 concerned is clothed with a low, dense thorn-scrub 

 which from time to time opens out into little park- 

 like spaces, covered during the rainy season with a 

 temporary growth of luxuriant grass. In the centre 

 and north-west, the belts of bush become denser and 

 more difficult to penetrate, but towards the Tana the 

 open plains become larger and more numerous. If 

 these facts are remembered, much that is otherwise 



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