THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIEE 67 



tains. For many years the bones of elephants that had been shot 

 were lying in Soksode plains near Waggar, and at Mandera. Near 

 Zeyla my brother saw elephants walking on the beach, and I shot 

 one of my finest not forty miles from the coast at Lofodi. Lesser 

 kudu were plentiful in the foot-hills. Like the greater kudu, they 

 are never found far from water, and their habits very much 're- 

 semble those of the cheetel, the axis deer of India. 



' The contrast between the past and the present is distressing. 

 I have frequently travelled across the prairies since then, and I do 

 not think I have ever seen more than a dozen animals at a time, 

 excepting, perhaps, the common and unsought-after aoul. Harte- 

 beeste have practically disappeared, and oryx are met in dwindled 

 and scattered herds. Several herds of elephants remain in the 

 west near Jalelo, Gibeli, and in the Gadabursi country, but these 

 give a yearly toll to sportsmen and are gradually dwindling 

 away. 



' The country inland east of Karam is not well known, having 

 never been visited by officers of the Administration, except when I, 

 in my military capacity, in 1902 carried an expeditionary force 

 from Berbera inland behind the Golis Eange to the top of the 

 mountains at the back of Laskhorai. The tribes in this direction 

 have never been administered inland, and no attempts have been 

 made to bring the Game Eegulations into force. I should say, 

 from the little I was able to see at the time of my journey, that 

 this part of the country does not contain so much game as the 

 western part of the Protectorate, which is better known. At the 

 same time, the " Hand " at the back of the hills, here called 

 " Sorl," has great possibilities, and I know that rhinoceros and 

 oryx are to be found there in considerable numbers. 



' I do not attribute the reduction in the numbers of wild animals 

 either to disease or to native hunting. Both of these factors have 

 operated during the last hundred years, and the game as I saw it 

 in 1891 had successfully coped with both. 



' The epidemic of rinderpest which in 1897 swept over the 

 whole of Africa began in Harrar, and Somaliland was the first 

 country to suffer, the cattle being nearly wiped out. Since then 

 rinderpest has appeared periodically, keeping down the extra- 

 ordinary recuperative powers of the hardy Somali breeds. Thus 

 in 1899, 1901, 1903, it followed the cattle through the western 

 prairies and the Golis Mountain Eange. The hartebeeste in the 

 west suffered enormously, and so did the kudu in the hills. 

 Somalis have told me that, at certain seasons, they have every day 

 gone out on foot and pulled down with their hands batches of sickly 

 animals in order to strip the hides. The prairies were in 1899-1901 

 everywhere covered with bones, and in the hills heads of kudu 

 were continually being brought in by natives. 



' There are no permanent villages, except at the coast, and a 

 few small communities of religious men every hundred miles or so. 



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