X 
JOURNEY TO WEB BE SHABELEH RIVER 
247 
Aulihan country, I stuck to my idea of going into G&llaland, 
declaring that I had not come all this way to see Somalis. So 
it was arranged we should go to the Aulih&n for eleven days ; 
and then, returning to Karanleh, meet Dubbi Harre, and be taken 
by him to the Webbe Web. 
At sunrise, on 31st August, I broke up the Karanleh camp and 
marched through some five miles of jowari plantations, near the 
south bank of the river, to Yahia’s village, where I shot a noted 
man-eating crocodile. These hideous pests swarm here ; once 
I shot a wild goose, which, falling into the stream, was immedi- 
ately seized by a crocodile and drawn under while still struggling. 
In the evening we made another march to a spot near the river 
where we had been told to expect a school of hippopotami, and 
I shot two good waterbuck bulls on the way there. We saw 
fresh tracks of the hippos in the reeds, and I sat up by moon- 
light in the jungle overlooking them, hoping to bag one as it 
came to feed on shore. But at 4 a.m., finding nothing stirring 
in the reeds, we gave it up and returned to camp by moonlight. 
The Gilimiss, our guide, said that the hippopotami were scarce 
and wary, as the Adone negroes, during a recent famine, when 
nearly all their cattle had died of disease, had killed hippo- 
potami for food, and had greatly reduced their numbers. The 
great epidemic of cattle-disease which three or four years ago 
raged in Masailand and other parts of East Africa was also 
felt in Og&den, the cattle and the koodoo antelopes dying of 
it in large numbers. It was felt as far north as the Marar 
Prairie. 
We made a morning march on 1st September, and another in 
the evening. While passing over ground blackened by fire, and 
covered with young grass, I shot a buck Soemmerring’s gazelle 
and a waterbuck. At dusk, coming to dense forest by the river, 
I ordered the men to pitch camp at the edge, and entering the 
jungle unattended, saw a red object standing motionless near the 
stem of a large tree twenty yards away. I felt certain it was an 
antelope, but was unable to make it out in the half-light. I put 
up the rifle and fired, when the animal rushed past me and fell in 
a ravine close by, rolling over on its side ; on going up to it, I 
found, to my delight, it was a young buck of the dol, or striped and 
spotted Webbe bushbuck, I had been so anxious to get. Going 
into camp to call up the men, I shot a buck lesser koodoo. As 
the forest appeared to have plenty of game in it I resolved to 
halt for a day’s shooting. The camp was in a pleasant place, at 
