ARID COUNTRY 



guinea-fowl, I started off once more shortly before 

 3 a.m. We were all somewhat tired and stiff, and 

 it seemed ages before the first signs of dawn were 

 apparent in the east ; but soon after the sun rose — a 

 disc of deepest red seen through the heavy pall of 

 mist that hung low over the bush. The dry river bed 

 was on my right, and on each side of it the ground 

 rose slightly, forming a kind of valley, while ahead 

 I could see a low line of rounded hills just visible 

 above the jungle through which I was threading my 

 way. Dense thorn covered the land in all directions, 

 forming a vast sea of verdure, but in spite of this the 

 general aspect of the country was arid and inhospitable 

 beyond words. These endless stretches of thorn-scrub 

 are very depressing, and the brilliant sun, which had 

 already dispersed the morning mist, failed to dispel 

 the gloomy impression the scene had left on me. 



I continued marching steadily, keeping close to the 

 river bank, and shortly before eight o'clock reached 

 the low hills I had seen in front of me at daybreak. 

 Here the river takes a bend to the north, and as the 

 trail had by now quite disappeared, I decided to go 

 straight on to the north-west, since it was most im- 

 portant that we should reach the swamp as early as 

 possible, both on account of water and of food. So I 

 skirted the spur of the hills, where I found traces of 

 an old Somali boma, leaving the river on my right- 

 hand side. Close at hand were two large pools, then 

 quite empty, and surrounded as usual by dense woods ; 

 round one of them was a thorn hedo^e about 2 feet 

 high with only one small opening where an old 

 elephant trail led down to the pool. Not many yards 

 away was a small shelter built in the bush. This was 

 probably the work of some Somali hunters who had 



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