This study is divided into three parts: brPart I deal Briefly with the characteristics of the Shebeli river as well As with the hydraulic works already completed or recommended to dispose off excess water, which is often damaging agricultural Crops. brThis first part is actually an introduction to Part II, which in turn deals with the water supplies of the huge alluvial deposits accumulated in the valley during the Pliocene and the Quaternary. The reader who is interested in more detailed information on the hydrological characteristics of this important and interesting river is referred to the Bibliography listing the many authors who have written on this subject at a greater length. br Part III is a copy of all data so far availableon wells and information on water Surveys conducted on Shabelle river Valley.

This report deals with geological work carried out in connection with the proposed dam at Hargeisa between october 1954 and may 1955

In 1954, the Government of Somaliland protectorate requested the Tanganyika Government to loan the services of an Engineer in water development in order to advise on matter of a water supply to the capital town of Hargeisa. The author of this report accordingly arrived in Hargeisa for this purpose on 23 September 1954 and after studying the problem, departed again on 6 October 1954. Specific recomendations were made before departure in terms of letter no 5/40/37 of 5 october 1954 to the Hon. the chief secretary to the Government and these recomendations are now embodied in detail in this report

An attempt has been made in this Report to describe the general geography of the Somaliland Protectorate from existing know1edge and from the results of a seven-year General Survey(1944-1950). Special attention has been paid to those aspects of geography that had not previously been sufficiently studied by research workers in the Protectorate (e.g. Time, Topography, Meteorology, General Geology, and the Ecology of nomadic stock-herding tribesmen). It is hoped that the factual material contained in the document will be of value for reference purposes to all interested in the Protectorate, of use in planning positive development and in preventing expenditure on uneconomic developmental schemes.