Chapter VI: Geology

181.

The geological work proposed for carrying out by the General Survey was as follows:

(i)	Reconnaissance exploration of the potential mineral belt of the foothills and main scarp from Jibuti to Manja Yihin (including the making of any necessary 1 : 250,000 topographical maps of this area, and recording of general data for the area whilst geological work was being carried out).
(ii)	Survey of water development possibilities, particularly in the waterless areas (but not the carrying out of any development.
(iii)	General geological reconnaissance in any area covered for general survey purposes.

182.

The Survey Officer, J. A. Hunt, is a geologist, and two other geologists were employed, each for two years, to carry out the Mineral Belt Survey (S. Stock) and the Water Development Survey (W. A. Macfadyen).

183.

In the event this work was not completed for the whole area. Mr. Stock covered the lowlands from the eastern boundary (Manja Yihin) to as far west as Heis, and further exploration for minerals in this area is still recommended. Copies of Mr. Stock's reports were delivered to the Chief Secretary to the Government, Hargeisa, and to the Director of Colonial Geological Surveys, London, and are available for public inspection. They have been used in the compilation of this Report, especially for Illustrations 4 and 31, and notes on Mr. Stock's findings have been included in Annual Reports on the General Survey 1946 and 1947.

184.

Dr. Macfadyen made a geological reconnaissance, using air photographs, of the Haud and Sawl Haud, and made recommendations for water drilling in both. He was, however, engaged for part of his tour on other duties (pasture report, date survey, station water supplies, etc.) and there remains much work to be done on the difficult surface geology of the Haud and Sawl Haud. His combined report "The Water Supply and Geology of parts of British Somaliland" is being published, probably in 1951, and is likely to remain the most comprehensive account of water supplies and possible water developments for many years to come. It should be a reference book in frequent use in all offices in the Protectorate.

185.

Drilling on Dr. Macfadyen's borehole sites unfortunately had to be carried out after is tour of service was ended, and supervision of this boring therefore devolved upon the Survey Officer, who should have been employed on other work. This was owing to difficulties in obtaining the services of a drilling contractor. The contractor finally obtained only succeeded in drilling one of the six provisionally sited boreholes to the required depth, and that hole proved to be dry. The possibility of water at a reasonably economic depth for pumping in the Haud and Sawl Haud therefore remains problematical. Full details of the drilling campaign are given in the General Survey, 1949, Annual Report. In view of the water sands in the Eocene at Gumburu in Ethiopia (Ogaden), which are believed to have been found by drilling might have struck water if drilling had been continued; but these sands had not then been heard of, the rig and driller provided by the contractor could not have continued this borehole, and the funds allotted for drilling having been expended, the drilling campaign had to be stopped at the end of 1949.

186.

Other areas geologically mapped since the publication of "The Geology of British Somaliland" (Macfadyen 1933) by the writer are:

(i)	Zeila Plain.
(ii)	Hargeisa-Haleya Valley.
(iii)	Onkhor Area.
(iv)	Golis-Guban.

The Zeila Plain and Hargeisa Valley surveys, with maps and sections, are in typescript at Government Headquarters, Hargeisa, and a summary of the Zeila Plain survey in the "Geology Magazine" (Hunt 1943). The geology of the Onkhor area was published (with map and sections) in the General Survey, 1945, Annual Report. The Golis-Guban survey is incomplete. The results of all these surveys, and of geological reconnaissances over much of the Protectorate and neighbouring Grazing Areas, have been used in the compilation of this Report; details of new work, including column-sections, have been published in the Annual Reports of the General Survey, 1944 - 49.

187.

After 1945 the claims of administrative duties, other general survey work, and duties not connected with the General Survey, as well as the supervision of the drilling campaign in 1949, prevented the Survey Officer from carrying out the geological work which he had started to do in 1944 and 1945. It is hoped that a separate Geological Survey will be carried out by full-time geologists as soon as possible.

188.

The following summary of the geology of the Somaliland Protectorate shows the present state of knowledge of the general geology of the Protectorate, excluding the work of the Somaliland Oil Exploration Co. (Shell), which is at present confidential. When the S.O.E.C. results are published their conclusions, where they vary from those reached by the General Survey, can be discussed. All air photographs and all the geological work carried out by the General Survey were made available to the S.O.E.C.

(See also "Geology of British Somaliland" (Macfadyen 1933); and Illustration 31, in pocket.)