British 3 Somaliland] SURFACE : MARITIME ZONE is about 60 miles at Zeila, 30 miles at Harag Jid, and 7 miles at Berbera, while farther to the east it varies from 2 miles to a few hundred yards.

The maritime mountains reach an altitude of 4,500 ft. in the south, but are much lower in the north . In the west they are low table-topped plateaux of black igneous rocks, diorite, diabase, &c. , bearing a scanty crop of low bushes and tufts of grass. The edges of these plateaux are precipices 30 ft. high, below which are steep slopes of débris running down to watercourses, whose banks are clothed with bush and tree vegetation .

East of Bulhar the hills are principally parallel ridges of limestone, running east and west ; but some ridges and isolated peaks are of metamorphic rock (granites, syenites, quartzites, &c. ) . Between the ridges are undulating plains, traversed by broad, flat, dry water courses running northward, with banks on which grow reeds, gurha thorn - trees, wabe trees, and hig. As a rule the watersheds are stony and are studded with low mimosa -trees, but there are stretches of coarse grass.

East of Berbera these limestone ridges form a confused mass of broken hills, traversed by numerous water courses running from south to north , and intersected by small plains. Much of this area is covered with trees or grass . The mountains narrow as the interior plateau trends to the north until, at the western end of the Warsangeli Mountains (about 10° 42 ' N. and 47° E. ) , they form a narrow belt between the scarp of the interior plateau and the maritime plain. These eastern maritime mountains are undulating in the west, while farther to the east, towards the Italian frontier, they are very precipitous. They are traversed by numerous watercourses running from south to north, some of which, e. g. the Sabe and the Selid, are of considerable size and are believed to contain perennial running water in their upper reaches. West .

B 2