v RECONNAISSANCE OF ABYSSINIAN BORDER 131 
people there. So, as the object of our journey was the 
construction of a route map, without coming to blows with 
any one, we decided to defer our visit till a more fitting 
opportunity. 
So far we had done three hundred miles of route in twenty- 
nine days, or ten and a half miles a day including halts, all of 
the road having been carefully traversed with prismatic compass, 
the main points being fixed by observations of the stars with 
a transit theodolite. We had travelled sixty-four miles without 
water between Dagahbtir and Waror, so that between Hargeisa 
and the latter place we had gone over two hundred miles of 
unexplored route with only two intermediate watering-places ; 
yet all this country had been very fertile and subject to a con- 
siderable rainfall. With a proper system of tanks, involving, of 
course, a great initial outlay, combined with a steady, cultivating 
population, instead of the lazy, strife-loving Somali nomads 
who now own the soil, much of this tract could, I believe, be 
made to rival some of the best parts of India. People who 
visit only the arid sandy Maritime Plain of the low coast 
country near Berbera, or see it from ships, get little idea of 
the fine soil, good rainfall, and cool, healthy climate of the 
interior plateaux. 
About the middle of August we broke up our Waror camp 
and marched to Abonsa, in the Harar Highlands, the elevation 
being six thousand feet, whence a fine view was obtained over 
the distant Marar Prairie to the north. On the way, at Koran, 
we passed six men carrying Remington rifles, three of whom 
were Abyssinians, the first we had seen. They were very civil 
and shook hands. Our guide said this was a party going to 
Gerlogubi, in Central Ogadén, to get “tribute.” 
We had now gone as near to Jig-Jiga as we dared, and 
proposed to return to Hargeisa to pick up the stores left with 
Sheikh Mattar, and to make a fresh start for the Harar border 
on the Gildessa side, hoping to be able to include Jig-Jiga in 
the map if it should turn out to have been vacated by the 
Abyssinians. 
The whole of the country south of Waror and Abonsa was 
much disturbed by a feud between the Ahmed Abdalla, Habr 
Awal, and the Rer Farah, Abbasgul. We divided our camps 
at Dubbur in order to survey more ground, and my brother, in 
returning to Hargeisa across the Marar Prairie, passed through 
the fighting tribes, and saw many of their mounted scouts, who 
