14 
SOMALILAND 
see, not a single thing was left behind, although the only 
light we had came from the fast-dying-out camp-fires. 
During my stay at Berbera I was troubled very much 
with diarrhoea, caused by the peculiar water ; this had left 
me very weak and shaky. However, by dosing myself 
with opium pills and soda-mint tabloids, I gained strength 
every day. 
We marched through the darkness without incident 
until daybreak, when my syce, as usual, spotted some 
gazelle, and after slowly walking after them for a mile 
without allowing us to get anywhere near them, I let fly 
at them at long range, and missed. The same thing 
happened two hours after, when my syce was the first to 
find again. During the morning we found two more lots, 
but they got away without being fired at. We then 
halted, after having marched for four hours, and as I was 
utterly dead beat, after some tiffin, I had my bed spread 
under an attempt at a tree, and slept till 2 p.m., when we 
restarted under the burning sun. 
At about 4.30 my syce saw gazelle for the sixth time, 
when, after the usual walking, running, and crouching in 
full view of them, I got tired, and fired a running shot, 
making my third miss for the day. The shot started an 
old jackal out of a thorn-bush, where he had been lying 
asleep ; but he did not offer me a chance, slinking quickly 
away, his nose and brush almost touching the ground. 
Coming back to the pony, we started a dik-dik, a tiny little 
antelope weighing less than a hare. After this we marched 
in silence through deep rocky nullahs, surrounded by small 
barren hills, the ground becoming more stony and utterly 
destitute of grass. We passed over several dried-up river- 
beds, and I had frequent recourse to the water-bottle to 
gargle out my parched throat, the heat during the after- 
noon being terrific. 
My shikari’s method of stalking gazelle did not appeal 
to me. His idea was to walk straight at them until they 
ran away, and then run hard to the nearest bush, expecting 
