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 
only 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 
