252 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
mountains of Somaliland chiefly in the absence of the full gray 
mane ; and a small tree-monkey, of whose name I am ignorant. 
After creeping about noiselessly for the space of two hours 
with G-eli and Hassan, I put up the buffalo at a distance of 
about twenty yards, but we could only hear the heavy pounding 
of the earth and cracking of sticks as they galloped off, with 
continuous crashing through the undergrowth, and the hollow 
sound of the larger limbs of the trees breaking as they charged 
ahead. We followed, in the course of the morning putting them 
up no less than seven times. Once we came to their lair, at a 
spot in the densest line of thicket close to the river, where four 
large banyan-trees grew together, their roots and descending 
branches interlacing to form a labyrinth of caves with upright 
pillars. The place was nearly dark ; it smelt of buffalo and 
was full of their droppings ; one of the exits was a tunnel 
through the thicket about five feet high. Through this they 
had escaped, and finding they could not pass under a branch 
six inches thick, which spread horizontally across this opening 
at a height of four feet, they had charged and broken it short off. 
