Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/465

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SOMALI LAND. 879 have already fallen victims either to tho hardships of the route or to the assassin's dagger. Owing to all the^e obstacles it seems improbable that the country* can be thoroughly known in all the details of its relief until the towns along its seaboard have been occupied by Europeans, and regular trade routes with the inland districts opened by them, either as allies of friendly tribes or as military masters of the land. Already at the time of the Khedive Ismail Pasha, when the Egyp- tians had taken possession of the Upper Nile basin as far as the frontiers of Uganda, they also endeavoured to establish their supremacy on the Somal coast. Their fleets made their appearance before some of the ports along the seaboard ; but ]Jritish intervention prevented the modern Pharaohs from annexing to their empire the land of aromatic herbs. At present the struggle for political ascendancy is mainly confined to the rival British and German nationalities. The Germans have officially annexed the south coast, where they have already " baptized " a port by the eccentric name of HohenzoUern-hafen. The English reign supreme throughout the whole of the northern regions lying over against their formidable stronghold of Aden. The island of Sokotra, which commands at once both coasts, is also regarded by them as British territory. Physical Features. Nothing beyond conjectures can be hazarded regarding the main axis of the mountain range which stretches from Kenia northwards in the direction of the Abyssinian highlands. We do not even yet know how far north runs the great fault or lacustrine depression flanked by volcanoes which traverses Masai Land, separating the sections of the plateau between the Victoria Nyanza and oceanic watersheds. According to the reports of the natives it seems probable that this extensive fissure scarcely extends beyond the lacustrine plain of Zaniburu. North of this shallow basin the mountain ranges, running in the direction from south- west to north-east, that is, parallel with the shores of the Indian Ocean, seem to be disposed in separate ridges at different elevations, whose terraced crests thus present the aspect of steps ascending, like the Indian ghats, to the inland plateaux. Above one of these ridges towers the Mount Wosho, which d'Abbadie beheld at a distance of 150 miles. Farther north Cecchi and Chiarini in 1879, after crossing the border ranges with a mean altitude of from 9,000 to 10,000 feet, descended from the plateau above which rises Mount Wariro, and thence made iheir way over a piss down to the lower terraces which send their surface waters to the basin of the Webi. Still farther north two parallel chains of extinct volcanoes enclose a lacustrine depres- sion, where are found three lakes which have been seen from a distance by the Italian explorers. The northernmost of these basins is that of Lake Zuai (6,000 feet), which was till recently supposed to be an affluent of the Awash river. Now, however, it is known to receive several tributaries from the north, amongst others