Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/475

 FAUNA OF SOMAI.I LAND. 889 wide spaces. Along the seacoast little is seen but the plants characteristic of alkaline soils, except in the vicinity of the wadj's, which are often fringed with leafy trees. On the hills and uplands the prevailing forms are gum-yielding acacias, mimosius, euphorbias, and the aromatic growths from which are obtained the frankincense and myrrh of commerce, and for which this region, like the opposite coast of Arabia, has always been famous. Some authorities have even derived the very word myrrh itself from the Mnrehan (properly Mnrreyhau) tribe, in whose territory it is obtained in the greatest perfection, although it seems more probably connected with a Semitic root mar, or mur, meaning " bitter." Another curious member of this family is the Oltbanum, or BoswcUia, which grows on the bare rocks, to which its white roots seem glued as with a coating of mastic. Nevertheless a leafy .vegetation becomes continually more prevalent in the direction of the south. Clumps of the date-palm occur only in the neighbourhood of the coast towns ; but even here the fruit never comes to maturity, the Somali not having yet learnt the art of fertilising the female plant, an art of which the Arab date merchants are careful to keep them in ignorance. The dura palm is met in a few isolated spots, but the banana is nowhere seen beyond the gardens of the seaboard district. On the uplands of the interior, botanists have collected a large number of new species. Here some of the more abundantly watered mountain slopes, such as those of Gan Libash, present a magnificent vegetation rivalling in beautv that of the Abyssinian highlands. In these districts the naturalist Mengcs has found the giant juniper and the superb jibara, with its mass of bright blossom rising several yards above the foliage. The coffee shrub also flourishes on the spurs and offshoots of the Shoa highlands. The central territory of Ogaden, which stands at a meon elevation of about 3,000 feet, appears from the information obtained by Sottiro to be mainly a vast region of steppes. After the light showers to which it is exposed the whole surface is converted into a boundless sea of tall grasses interrupted in some places by tracts of shingly wastes. Fauna. The fauna of Somali Land differs little from that of the Galla country in the Ethiopian uplands, except that it becomes continually poorer in the direction of the coastlands. The elephant and other large animals roam only in the southern and western parts of the country, which are more copiously watered and have a correspondingly richer vegetation. Numerous herds of elephants climb the difficult escarpments of the Gan Liba^h, which man himself is scarcely able to ascend. They also frequent the Ogaden steppes, and are said to withdraw to the banks of •the AVebi at the approach of death. In the northern regions the forests, bush, and stonv tracts harbour various species of monkeys, a prevalent type being that of the cynocephalous, or dog-fuced apes. Carnivorous beasts, such as the lion, leopard, panther, jackal, hyaena, and other felidiE, infest the Ogaden steppe, while all the plateaux are roamed by the