higher altitudes. Inland of these
ranges the ground slopes gradually toward the almost waterless Haud--a
vast plateau sparsely covered with tall mimosa bush or actual trees
attaining some thirty feet in height and striking deep to subterranean
moisture, which keeps them remarkably fresh and green. Giraffe feed
eagerly on the tender upper foliage and herds of camel graze there too,
going six months without water, for there is no known supply locally
except in the occasional mud-pans or _ballis_ after a rainburst, which
may happen once a year. These camels are kept for meat and milk only,
and are no use for transport, as they are too "soft" to carry a sack of
flour. They are rounded up and brought in to wells twice a year, where
they water for a week or so. Herdsmen moving with them live on their
milk, which is most sustaining. They must be watered after a maximum
interval of half a year, or they get "poor" and will not put on flesh.
Needless to say, no transport camel could be treated like that. A
caravan camel can go five days without water, but that is about his
limit while working, and he should be allowed to rest and graze for some
days afterwards if he is to regain working condition. The giraffe, as
also antelope of various kinds, can support life without water at all,
though they trek greedily to the _ballis_ after rain. Here lion lie in
wait for them occasionally, and it is a frequent subject of discussion
among naturalists and sportsmen how such heavy, thirsty animals can
subsist in the Haud. The most probable supposition is that they only
enter this region with the rains and trek from one _balli_ to another. I
have met a lioness a long way out of lion country presumably trekking
from one water-hole to the next. What is still more remarkable is that
heavy game sometimes will do so too. Heavy firing was once heard far
south of Burao, and a mounted force pushed out thinking it was the
Mullah's people going for our "friendlies" out grazing. A rhinoceros on
trek for water and nearly mad with thirst had winded the waterskins in a
Somali grazing camp and charged through the zareba to get at them. He
was mobbed to death by the herdsmen with the rifles which a benevolent
Government had given them for protection against the dervishes.

To do them justice, the Somalis fear their fauna very little and have
more than once, when in attendance on a European sportsman, driven off a
lion with spears and a resolute front after th