THE LORIAN DISTRICT 



this name is extended to the district through which it 

 flows until permanent water ceases at Madoleh (" place 

 of darkness "). From that place to Afmadu the stream 

 bed is known as the Lak Dera ("the long water- 

 course "). But although in the latter stages of its 

 wanderings the river is generally dry, and its channel 

 often ill-defined and overgrown with dense jungle, yet 

 to the careful observer, who has patiently followed its 

 course, the main stream bed is always distinguishable. 

 A glance at the map will show that the district of Lorian 

 is contained between the 39th and 40th meridians 

 of E. longitude along the ist parallel of N. latitude. 

 It may be considered as a shallow valley sloping 

 gently to the south-east, whose floor consists of an 

 alluvial plain of great extent, divided unequally into 

 two parts by the river and the swamps through which 

 it flows. 



There are three swamps in the Lorian district. 

 The first is situated about sixty miles to the east of 

 Marti (1° 09' 59" N,, 39° 15' 47" E.), and is called 

 by the Borana and Somali Melka Gela ("watering- 

 place of camels"). It consists of a large shallow 

 depression about ten miles long by two broad, lying 

 close to the south bank of the river, where the latter 

 turns from its north-eastern course to east, and then 

 south-east. It is covered during the rainy season 

 with tall, coarse grass, ten or twelve feet high, and the 

 ground becomes very saturated and swampy, and if 

 the rains have been particularly abundant these con- 

 ditions may extend to the north bank. In the dry 

 season, however, the grass withers and the ground 

 grows hard, and cracks, leaving large gaps in its 

 surface. There are also one or two tiny little stream 

 beds that wander across this swamp ; but they cannot 



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