TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 23 



wraps. The others lent me theirs too, telling me I 

 should come below, as it was going to be " a dirty 

 night," whatever that might mean. It seemed a never- 

 ending one, and my thankfulness cannot be described 

 when, as the dawn broke, I saw land — Somaliland. We 

 made the coast miles below Berbera, which is really what 

 one might have expected. However, it was a matter 

 of such moment to me that we made it at last that I 

 was not disposed to quibble we had not arrived some- 

 where else. 



I managed to pull myself together sufficiently to see 

 the Golis Range. The others negotiated breakfast. 

 They brought me some tea, made of some of the bilge 

 water I think, and I did not fancy it. Then came 

 Berbera Harbour, with a lighthouse to mark the 

 entrance ; next Berbera itself, which was a place I was 

 as intensely glad to be in as I afterwards was to leave 

 it. I should never have believed there were so many 

 flies in the whole world had I not seen them with 

 mine own eyes. In fact, my first impression of Ber- 

 bera may be summed up in the word "flies." The 

 town seemed to be in two sections, native and Euro- 

 pean, the former composed of typical Arab houses and 

 numerous huts of primitive and poverty-stricken ap- 

 pearance. The European quarter has large well-built 

 one^storied houses, flat-roofed ; and the harbour looked 

 imposing, and accommodates quite large ships. 



Submerged in the shimmering ether we could dis- 

 cern, through the parting of the ways of the Maritime 

 Range, the magnificent Golis, about thirty-five miles 

 inland from Berbera as the crow flies. 



