XII 
THE FAUNA OF SOMALILAND 
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abode near Sen Morettu, but I failed to find it, only coming upon 
the fresh tracks. 
There are giraffes (Giri or Halgiri) in the Aulihan country, 
three days from Burka on the Webbe, but I gave them up for the 
chance of going to the Arussi Gallas. This animal differs from 
the South African giraffe in its markings. The South African 
form is more spotted ; the Somali form has lighter markings, and 
the patches of colour are divided into more hexagonal and sex- 
agonal shapes, as pointed out in a letter to the Field by Mr. 
Rowland Ward in February 1894, who gave a description of the 
first one shot in Somaliland by Major Wood. 
While on the Webbe I was informed that four buffalo ( Jamus ) 
bulls had strayed from the Gerire Galla country through eighty 
miles of bush, and had taken up their abode in the forest on the 
Webbe banks at Sen Morettu, four years before my visit to that 
spot. My informant, a Gilimiss Somali, told me that his father 
had killed two, two years before, with poisoned arrows. I found 
the fresh tracks of the remaining two, and tried for a whole day to 
get a sight of them, but unsuccessfully. Buffaloes are said by the 
Gallas to be plentiful on the Webbe Web, a tributary of the Juba, 
iour days distant from Karanleh. 
Baboons (Ddger) are occasionally seen in the rocks round 
the river-beds, especially in different parts of Guban. My first 
meeting with these animals was an interesting experience. It 
was when on my first surveying expedition, and while encamped 
at Aleyalaleh on the Issutugan river, with an escort of Indian 
cavalry and mounted police, that I first saw baboons. At this 
spot the river cuts deeply into a plateau, forming a gully two 
or three hundred feet deep. A troop of some two hundred 
baboons came down towards evening from the cliffs, on their 
way to drink at the stream. Several of the old males were 
nearly as large as retriever dogs, and had handsome gray manes, 
which at dusk gave them the appearance of lions. There were 
several females carrying young ones on their backs, and as the 
long strings of baboons climbed along the narrow ledges, they 
kept up a hoarse barking which sounded very like language, 
and could be heard from a great distance echoing among the 
hills. They are savage brutes, and take up positions as if to 
dispute the passage of any one climbing the cliffs ; and I have 
no doubt, with his long teeth and great strength, one of the 
old males could kill an unarmed man. 
I had given the troopers some spare cartridges to amuse 
