360 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
march all day long ; and although in the sun it is hot, yet in a tent pitched 
under the shade of a flat-topped gadd tree it is sometimes quite chilly, 
even at mid-day, while it is disagreeably so in the early mornings. 
The Haud was first crossed by Mr. F. L. James and his party in the 
winter of 1884-85, and a description of the journey is given in his book, 
The Horn of Africa. Their camels were carrying loads for thirteen days 
without touching a drop of water. The description of the Haud in the 
above-named work, although I believe it to be an accurate portrait of the 
country passed over by that expedition, does not give any idea of the 
pleasant coolness and apparent fertility of the more elevated north- 
eastern Haud. Mr. James’s party crossed this district at almost its 
widest part, and in the Jildl or driest season. The plateau is traversed 
by several warda , or great trade routes, to the far interior from the coast, 
generally running nearly north and south. In the strips of ban , or open 
plain, often many miles wide, all caravan paths are lost, each caravan 
crossing independently of landmarks, and no impression is left on the 
growing grass. Once the ban is passed, however, all tracks will have 
converged into one well-worn path, or group of parallel paths. One of 
the most important of these is the Warda Gumared crossing the plateau 
from Hargeisa to Milmil. 
The drainage from the Haud and Ogaden finds its way into the Nogal 
Valley, or into the Webbe Shabeleh, eventually falling into the Indian 
Ocean on the east Somali coast, assigned to the Italian sphere of influence. 
In reality, the Shabeleh, I believe, does not actually reach the ocean, but 
falls into marshes near Mukdislia (Magadoxo). Farther south, beyond 
the Webbe Shabeleh and the Webbe Ganana or Juba, is the Tana River, 
rising near Mount Kenia in the Masai country and flowing east. The 
Somalis make annual raids as far south as the Tana, to within a few 
days’ march of Lamu on the east coast, but, so far as we know at present, 
the permanent Somali country may be considered to lie well to the north 
of the Juba. Most of this river lies in Gallaland, and its sources have 
been scarcely touched by any European explorer, except, perhaps, by the 
Italian explorer Captain Bottigo. 
I have said that some of the highest ground in Somaliland is Golis, 
continuations of which stretch far away to the eastward, parallel to the 
sea-shore as far as Cape Guardafui, forming the bold, almost unexplored 
coast-line visible from the decks of steamers passing along the southern 
side of the Gulf of Aden. But there is a still higher mountain system, 
that of the Harar Highlands, up to the foot of which the Haud Plateau 
extends. The Haud gradually falls towards the south-east, and rises ever 
higher the farther one goes westward, its north-west angle being occupied 
by the high ban known as the Marar Prairie. This magnificent expanse 
of open grass land is fifty-six miles long by thirty-five broad, having an 
area of nearly one thousand square miles, and an elevation ranging from 
4900 feet to 6300 feet. There are a few grassy knobs like the Subbul 
Hills which rise singly out of the'plains to nearly 7000 feet above sea-level. 
In the Jildl season the Marar Prairie is a sheet of yellow grass, quite 
dried up, but still containing nourishment — the varieties being chiefly 
daremo , dike , and durr, all three having valuable fattening qualities for 
horses or camels. After the first rains the young grass begins to come 
up in patches of vivid green, the old, longer grass falls, and soon the 
plains are entirely covered with a carpet of rich green turf, short and 
