Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 2.djvu/133

 coloured cynhyena, with a tail partly white, a grey jackal, and three different kinds of antelopes. Besides gulls, butcher birds, and a description of sparrow, no birds were found on the Maritime Plain. The Range of Mountains is that long line which fringes the Somali coast from Tajurrah to Ras Jerd Hafun (Cape Guardafui). In the portion visited by Lieutenant Speke it is composed principally of limestones, some white, others brownish, and full of fossil shells. The seaward face is a gradual slope, yet as usual more abrupt than the landward side, especially in the upper regions. Steep irregular ravines divide the several masses of hill. The range was thinly covered with Acacia scrub in the lower folds. The upper portion was thickly clad with acacia and other thorns, and upon the summit, the Somali pine tree observed by me near Harar, and by Lieutenant Herne at Gulays, first appeared. Rain had freshly fallen. The animal creation was represented by the leopard, hyena, rhinoceros, Waraba, four kinds of antelopes, hares and rats, tailless and long-tailed. It is poor in sea birds (specimens of those collected have been forwarded to the As. Society's Museum), and but one description of snake was observed. These hills belong partly to the Warsingali, and partly to the Habr Gerhajis. The frontier is in some places denoted by piles of rough stones. As usual, violations of territorial right form the rule, not the exception, and trespass is sure to be followed by a "war." The meteorology of these hills is peculiar. The temperature appears to be but little lower than the plain: the wind was north-easterly; and both monsoons bring heavy rains. At Yafir, on the summit of the hill, Lieutenant Speke's thermometer showed an altitude of about 7500 feet. The people of the country do not know what ice means. Water is very scarce in these hills, except