XII GIRAFFE-HUNTING 237 



farther eastwards, and in 1880 there were a few on 

 the upper Gwenia, and in the vicinity of Jomani. 

 Up till then, however, none appeared to have crossed 

 the Se-whoi-whoi river. The fact that the giraffe, 

 like the gemsbuck and eland, is most common in 

 portions of the country where water is usually very 

 scarce, and sometimes altogether wanting, would 

 seem to show that, like those animals, it can subsist 

 for a considerable period without drink, and many 

 people declare, indeed, that it never does drink. 

 This, however, is erroneous, as upon many occasions 

 I have myself seen it in the very act ; and a curious 

 sight it is to watch these long-limbed brutes straddling 

 out their fore-legs gradually, until their mouths reach 

 the water. 



The giraffe is both fleet and enduring, and it is 

 only a fairly good horse that can gallop clean past 

 one. As, however, they seldom put out their full 

 pace until hard pressed, they can be shot without 

 much difficulty, even with a bad horse, by making 

 him spurt up to within 100 yards or so of their sterns, 

 and then dismounting quickly, giving them a bullet 

 from behind just above the root of the tail. Owing 

 to the shortness of their bodies any ordinary rifle 

 will drive a bullet so placed right into the heart 

 or lungs, and I have seen several giraffes killed in 

 this manner by a single ball from a Martini-Henry 

 carbine. As the chase of the giraffe is considered 

 by many Englishmen who have distinguished them- 

 selves in the hunting-grounds of Southern Africa 

 to be the sport par excellence of the country, I will 

 reproduce some notes from my diary about this 

 period, bearing upon the subject. 



On the 2nd of November, the day after the return 

 of Captain Grandy and myself to Tati, we sent over 



