LARGE HERDS OF ELEPHANTS 



are exceedingly common in the bush near the coast. 

 They are, as any one who has hunted them knows, 

 very hard to see, and in Jubaland this is especially so, 

 owing to the dense undergrowth. They appear to live 

 chiefly on dik-dik, which are very numerous everywhere. 



Elephants are by no means uncommon in certain 

 districts during the rainy season. In Guranlagga I 

 saw a great deal of spoor. Some large herds had 

 trekked through, going westward during the last 

 rains ; they had probably been disturbed in the jungle 

 near the Juba River, and were travelling across 

 country to the Tana River, by way of the Deshek 

 Wama. In Joreh and Kurde they are rare, but in 

 the dense tropical forests near the Arnoleh River, and 

 throughout the almost limitless stretches of acacia 

 scrub and wait-a-bit thorn, they are to be found in 

 considerable numbers, so long as the water-supply 

 has not given out completely. They appear to trek 

 eastwards from the Lorian and the Tana when the 

 rains begin, and to return westwards when they cease. 

 Judging from careful observations and accurate mea- 

 surements of a considerable number of footprints, I 

 am led to the belief that the bodily size of the bulls 

 is slightly smaller than that of the average East 

 African elephant ; but it must be remembered that 

 bodily size is by no means a certain indication of the 

 weight of the tusks. The tusks are notoriously small 

 in the case of elephants found near the coast, but 

 farther west, in the interior, and near the middle Tana, 

 they are much larger. 



The giraffe which inhabits Jubaland has been 

 regarded as a distinct species, and is generally referred 

 to as the Somali or "netted" giraffe {Giraffa reticu- 

 lata), although its colour pattern is merely an extreme 



248 



