38 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



practically still in Berbera — at least I felt so when I 

 knew we had covered but some fifteen miles since 

 dawn. Perhaps it will be as well here to describe our 

 clothes for the trip. We wore useful khaki jackets, 

 with many capacious pockets, knickerbockers, gaiters, 

 and good shooting boots. At first we elected to don a 

 silly little skirt that came to the knee, rather like the 

 ones you see on bathing suits, but we soon left the 

 things off, or rather they left us, torn to pieces by the 

 thorns. 



Mosquitoes do not like me at all in any country, but 

 we had curtains of course, and they served, very badly, 

 to keep out the insects that swarmed all over one. 



Next day as we progressed, we saw numerous dik- 

 dik, popping up as suddenly as the gophers do in 

 Canada. They are the tiniest little things, weighing 

 pnly about four pounds, and are the smallest variety of 

 buck known. The back is much arched, grey brown 

 in colour, with much rufous red on the side. The 

 muzzle is singularly pointed. The little horns measure 

 usually about two and a half inches, but the females 

 are hornless. 



The ground we went over was very barren and 

 sandy, rather ugly than otherwise, and there was no 

 cover of any kind. Any thought of stalking the small 

 numbers of gazelle we saw was out of the question. 

 Besides, our main object was to push on as fast as 

 possible to the back of beyond. 



In the evenings we always did a few miles, and 

 camped where any wells were to be found. The water 

 was full of leeches, but we carefully boiled all the 



