XII 
THE FAUNA OF SOMALILAND 
295 
man-eaters and more often cattle-eaters. Last June my own 
caravan, while returning to the coast from Ogaden, was followed 
during two days, over a distance of forty miles, by a pair of 
hungry lions. We discovered this by chance, when some scouts 
of mine happened to go back along the road. 
Several years ago there used to be plenty of lions in Guban, 
in the reeds bordering the Issutugan river, and about Kabri-Bahr, 
and along the foot of G61is Range. Now the best country for 
them is decidedly the Haud Plateau and Ogaden, where there 
are still a good many. Milmil is sometimes a good place ; also 
the base of Bur Dab Mountain, and the Waredad Plain, where 
there are patches of durr grass an acre or two in extent, with 
a few shady thorn-trees growing within them. Lions make 
their lair in the high grass under the shade of a tree, and as 
the grass patches are surrounded by bare red soil or sand, the 
pugs are easily found, and the brutes can be driven out into 
the open and shot. Lions living in the Haud, where it is 
elevated five thousand to six thousand feet, have better coats 
and manes than those found in Guban or Og4den, and the best 
skins I have seen have come from the elevated ban or open 
prairie. All the animals of the elevated country have thicker 
coats than those found in the low country, this being, no doubt, 
a protection against cold. 
The Elephant (. Elephas africanus ) 
Native name, Mctrodi 
The SomMi elephant has within the last few years been 
much persecuted by sportsmen, and I am afraid that if this 
destruction goes on, in the near future there will be none left 
in Northern Somaliland, for they have entirely left their old 
haunts. In 1884, when Egypt evacuated Somaliland, elephants 
were plentiful on Wagar ancl Golis, coming down to the southern 
edge of the Maritime Mountains. Driven in December by the 
cold from the high interior, they wandered down the sand-rivers, 
feeding on the armo creepers and aloes. 
Since Sir Richard Burton’s expedition over forty years ago, 
few, if any, Europeans entered Somaliland until 1884, when 
two officers from Aden visited Golis in search of elephants 
almost simultaneously with Mr. F. L. James’s expedition to 
the Webbe. From that date the disappearance of the elephant 
