a. - * * J N A. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/unknownhornofafrOOjame UNKNOWN HORN OF AFRICA. “ The year has witnessed the accomplishment of what may be termed one of the most interesting and difficult feats of all recent African travel. This is the journey of our Associates, F. L. and W. D. James, authors of the well-known book on the Wild Tribes of the Soudan, who, with three English companions, Messrs. G. P. V. Aylmer, E. Lort-Phillips, and J. Godfrey Thrupp, organised an expedition which started last December to cross the north-eastern angle of Africa from Berbera to Mogadoxo. The hostile disposition and uncertain temper of the Somali tribes who inhabit this wide region have hitherto offered invincible obstacles to its exploration by Europeans .” — Extract from Annual Address on the Progress of Geography, delivered by Lord Aberdare, F.E.S., President R.G.S., 1884-85. Plate. Ill P.f.imil lilh. Hanhart imp GAZELLA'I;ASO V OJ? >;,vi a M.A. • }' s 1 !: NA X ' .<GEOK‘ ' ' : ; ' u •?; % ANL : ' .•/./: ' LORT-l’tr j / l.i FLEET ,Y i< •: AST E ST1.KI51 Plate. Ill THE UNKNOWN HORN OF AFRICA. AN EXPLORATION FROM BERBERA TO THE LEOPARD RIVER. BY F. L. JAMES, ALA., F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF “WILD TRIBES OF THE SOUDAN." WITH ADDITIONS BY J. GODFREY THRUPP, M.R.C.S. THE MAP BY IV. D. JAMES AND PERCY AYLMER. THE NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROSE HAKE, AND THE DRAWINGS OF THE FAUNA BY K. KEULEMAN, FROM SPECIMENS CHIEFLY COLLECTED BY E. LORT-PHILLII’S. LONDON: GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32 FLEET STREET; LIVERPOOL: 45 to 51 SOUTH CASTLE STREET. 1888. TO MAJOR-GEN. BLAIR, V.C., and MRS. BLAIR IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THEIR HOSPITALITY AT ADEN ON MANY OCCASIONS AND KIND HELP RENDERED TO OUR EXPEDITION <1 PREFACE. I REGRET the length of time which has passed between our exploration of the “ Unknown Horn of Africa,” as represented by the land of the Somal, and the publication of any detailed account of the expedition ; but I hope the lapse of three years has not rendered the production of yet another book on Africa ” a superfluity. As long as any part of inhabited Africa remains un- searched and undescribed, so long shall a certain amount of public interest attach itself to it. The semi-civilised Somal, as met with at Aden, is fami- lial to every traveller who passes through the lied Sea ; but his native land, with the exception of part of the coast region, had remained a sealed book to Europeans until the accomplishment of the journey which I have endeavoured to describe in these pages. I venture to hope that an additional interest may attach itself to our journey from the fact that a part of the Somali littoral, including the towns Berbera, Bulhar, and Zeilah, are now British territory, and that we arc consequently brought into more direct communication with the inhabitants of the interior than formerly; while PREFACE. viii to the south the country recently acquired by the Imperial British East African Company extends to near the sources of the River Tana, north of the equator, and not very far removed from the most southern limits of our journey ; and should this Company succeed, as I have no doubt it will do, in opening up vast tracts to civilisation and com- merce, direct British influence, if not territory, may at no distant date extend from the land we were the first to explore to the Company’s present southern boundaiy. During the whole journey I kept careful and complete notes, and in the present work I have endeavoured to utilise from my journal what I trust may prove attractive to the general reader as well as to those especially in- terested in books on exploration. These notes I put together in book form last winter while yachting m West Indian and South American waters, but I only finished my book during a cruise to Spitzbergen and Nova Zemlia, from which I have just returned ; and I fear, from the constant interruptions inseparable from such journeys, some of it may have been too hastily written. I desire to record my thanks to Mr. Thrupp, who very kindly assisted me in completing what I feel would have been incomplete without his assistance, and I thoroughly endorse all his additions. To the Committee of the Zoolo- gical Society of London, represented by Mr. F. L. Sclater, M.A., E.R.S., &c., I owe my thanks for permission to re- produce the excellent plates drawn by Mr. Keuleman of our newly-discovered fauna of Somali-land, and also to reprint the valuable descriptions of them by Mr. Sclater and others. PREFACE. IX To Mr. Seebohm’s courtesy I am indebted for the right of producing the plate of the Somali courser, whichhe discovered to be a new species. To Professor Oliver, F.R.S., I am obliged for the right of reproducing the lithographs of the new flora, and also for his memo- randa, with the complete catalogue list. To Mrs. Gordon Hake I owe my special thanks for the great care and skill she has displayed in the narrative illustrations. These, after frequent consultations between Mrs. Gordon Hake and ourselves, were composed from the numerous photographs of natives and native scenery taken on the spot by my brother and Aylmer, and for accuracy of detail and dramatic force, leave, I think, nothing to be desired. Indeed, they have more than justified the high opinion I hold of her talents as a faithful and realistic artist. 14 Great Stanhope Street, London, W. a >-