94 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
all directions were excellent paths through the forest made by 
elephants, and plunging into one of them, they reached the top 
of Tawdwur. They climbed on to an enormous boulder capping 
the top. Looking over a vast expanse of white clouds, they 
waited for them to clear away, but after four hours a fog came 
up and necessitated a retreat. EE saw countless varieties 
of birds, and heard the voice of a panther in the valley, and at 
times koodoo could be heard crashing through the jungle as the 
party advanced. About thirty varieties of flowers were gathered, 
of great beauty. 
E made two ascents of TawAwur and one of Bakawa, 
and working down the spurs of Bergéli, he reached camp at 
Asseil. It was very cold at night at Sisai, and the temperature 
throughout the day was 70°, except at noon, when it rose to 78° 
Fahr. E then descended again with his caravan to the 
plain below Huguf, and marching to the coast, reached Berbera 
a few days before I arrived by the coast route from Karam. 
The expedition to the Dolbahanta country was followed by 
a second to the Jibril Abokr sub-tribe of the Habr Awal, living 
in the hills north-west of Hargeisa and in the open plains near 
the Harar border. We took twenty-three men, of whom sixteen 
carried rifles, and twenty-four camels. The caravan left Berbera 
on 21st May, going south-west. We made a moonlight match 
to Nasiya tree in the Maritime Plain. Next day we came upon 
an immense cloud of locusts, which were seen daily till the 
26th, often darkening the sky. 
On the 28th we ascended a plateau under the crest of Gan 
Libah,! which is the farthest west of the Gélis bluffs, and a 
conspicuous landmark; it was on the highest point of Gan 
Libah, at an elevation of six thousand feet, that we chose our 
theodolite station. We climbed the mountain to a point some 
four miles south of the edge of the bluff, and camped ; and next 
morning I made an exploration through the cedar-forests to the 
highest point, from which the whole of the low country to the 
north can be seen, including Berbera and Bulhdr. I found, 
however, that owing to the steep nature of the ground, it would 
be impossible to get the theodolite uninjured to the station we 
had chosen. We subsequently found the three points, Berbera, 
Bulhar, and Gan Libah, nearly formed an equilateral triangle, 
with a side of about forty-two miles. 
The distance covered by the exploration was only eight 
1 Literally ‘‘ Lion Hand Mountain.” 
