32 (No. 97 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS only a few, might easily be utilized , and at no very great cost. In localities less favoured, dams could be made, especially in stock -raising areas such as the Arori and Toyo plains, and the great plains in the west and the Nogal valley. It is possible that with care ful preservation and regulation of the existing water supply, agricultural production, now virtually negli gible, might attain considerable dimensions .

6 (3) MINERALS As regards the mineralogy of the country very little is known .

Coal . — A sample of coal stated to have been obtained from a locality 53 miles east of Berbera and 30 miles south of Karam was submitted to the Imperial Institute for examination. They reported as follows : ' If the specimen now reported on is fairly representative of the coal obtainable from this deposit, the latter can be of no immediate value except for local use, as the coal could not compete even in the nearer Mediter ranean and East African markets with better coal available from other sources . The deposit may, how ever, be of great economic value to Somaliland later on, and should be thoroughly examined. ' Gold . Statements are to be met with , especially in older accounts of the country, to the effect that gold -fields exist in British Somaliland . It has been suggested that the gold-producing district, known to the ancient Ethiopian Empire as Sasu, may be located in the north - east corner of Somaliland, stretching southwards in the direction of Obbia in Italian Somaliland. Attempts have also been made to prove that the gold-bearing country known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt is identical with those parts of Somaliland . There is, however, no evidence of the existence of gold -fields in the country. The ranges of