52 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
the interior and Maritime Plains below them are called Guban. 
The Ogo climate is much cooler than that of Guban, and the 
grass and jungle more luxuriant. At Mandeira, all along the 
foot of G61is, is more or less dense forest of the large gudd 
thorn-tree, with a thick undergrowth of aloes and thorny bushes. 
Here are found leopards, lesser koodoo, Waller’s gazelle, and 
wart-hog. The pugs of an occasional lion may still, I think, be 
seen, and in the gorges of the mountain is to be found the large 
koodoo, 1 with his splendid spiral horns, and the Alakud or 
klipspringer. In the stony interior plains between Golis and 
the Maritime Range are found beisa, wild ass, the ubiquitous 
Waller’s gazelle, the lowland gazelle, and a few shy ostriches. 
Spotted hyaenas are common, striped hyaenas rare. 
We camped near the water at Mandeira at mid-day, and 
found the valley occupied by a section of the Habr Gerhajis 
tribe, who were friendly. While here I shot a buck lesser koodoo 
and missed a splendid bull koodoo, which crossed a ledge of 
rock two hundred feet above us. The buck lesser koodoo is, I 
think, the most beautiful wild animal in Somaliland ; his coat 
is fairly long, of a blue gray colour in old males, and nicely 
marked with white bands across the body. The horns are 
spiral, and about twenty-five inches long, and he has a bushy 
tail tipped with white. When disturbed he goes away in great 
bounds, flying the bushes and clumps of aloes, and presenting a 
most difficult shot. 
Hearing that there were elephants near Little Harar 
(Hargeisa), we went on to Guldnleh, about twenty miles short 
of that place and ninety south-west of Berbera. At Guldnleh 
the country became open and undulating, the G61is Range 
having ceased, and Guban rising gradually to the level of Ogo. 
Hargeisa is situated in the district between Ogo and Guban, 
which is called Ogo-Guban. The country immediately north 
of Hargeisa is called the Darnel Plain, a vast plateau of rolling 
ground covered with gravel or red earth, and low thorny scrub, 
and traversed by tributaries of the Issutugan river-bed. The 
Issutugan is a sand-river at places from one to five hundred 
yards wide, which, rising near Hargeisa, cuts through the 
Maritime Range and sends its freshets over the Maritime Plain 
to reach the sea near Bulhdr or Geri. The tributaries are 
generally dry and sandy, with patches of dense reeds, and are 
1 Nearly all the ground for large koodoo is now included in the preserve 
for the Aden garrison. 
