Table 3:  Gazetteer of Place Names, Somaliland Protectorate and Grazing Areas

As far as possible names have been spelt in accordance with the R.G.S. II system, as published in the Royal Geographical Society's "Hints to Travellers" (ninth edition) and the War Office "Manual of Map Reading and Field Sketching." This is the Official Somaliland Protectorate spelling for Somali Examinations. It is used throughout the world by explorers, enabling them to pronounce the words which they write down phonetically, fairly intelligibly to illiterate natives.

There are certain to be many errors in spelling, due to variations of dialect, individual pronunciations, variations in hearing of the writers, and in the case of names obtained from written Arabic reports, the accuracy and degree of education of the writers, and the choice of words by the translator. Some names have been taken from existing maps without correction.

Some of the groups of letters particularly liable to interchange are the following:

Without any knowledge of the language, mistakes are bound to occur, as descriptive names are often used in the plural, or synonyms employed, especially where a writer has translated a Somali name into Arabic and it has been translated back into Somali.

As few of the positions are from astronomical fixes (to the nearest minute), but many are from road reports, compass camel-march sketch-maps, plane-table surveys based on a local base line tied to uncertain points, or even from descriptions of relative positions with respect to previously plotted places.

Latitudes (all north) and longitudes (all east) are given in preference to grid references, because in practice maps on all scales with the same grid references are never universally available.

This Gazetteer, a first edition of which by Hunt and Viney was published in 1946 (B.S.G.P.4),  was found to be one of the necessary working tools for a Survey of Tribal Movements, Rainfall, etc.

To simplify plotting a "five-minute grid" on the scales of 1 : 500,000 and 1 : 1,000,000 cut on celluloid was devised. (It is believed to have been invented years ago and to be called a "Roehmer.") To use this grid it is necessary to mark degree lines on the map. To find a point on the map from the Gazetteer, e.g. Burao 9^o 31', 45^o 34', place 31 minutes on the 9^o parallel, at 34 minutes on the 45^o E. meridian. The corner of the grid should then coincide with Burao.

It has not been possible to combine this Gazetteer with the "First List of Names in the Somaliland Protectorate" (Permanent Committee on the Geographical Names for British Official use, Royal Geographical Society, February 1928). The following Gazetteer has therefore not been officially approved by the P.C.G.N., but is necessary for the purpose of this Report. Places referred to in the Report will be found in this Gazetteer, the first edition of which was accepted locally as official by the Protectorate Government in 1945.

Started in September 1943, this Gazetteer has been now revised up to January 1951.

[ Editors Note: this table continues for a total of about 1,600 rows of names. The data is available, but is it worth the effort to transfer this data from the written edition to the online version at this time?]

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© Jack L. Davies  for typesetting as a web page 2002

Notes for Writers: Bookmarks are included for each section, i.e. "A." - "H.", and will later be included for each numbered paragraph, i.e. "443." to "555.", each table and each illustration.