238 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



a waggon to Ramokwebani drift, nineteen miles 

 distant, following on horseback the next day. Our 

 intention was to trek up and down the Ramokwebani 

 river for a month or so, halting for a few days 

 wherever we found good grass for our oxen, and 

 game in sufficient quantities to keep our numerous 

 retinue of native servants in meat. On the evening 

 of our arrival Dorehill and I rode down the river to 

 look for a head of game, and whilst pursuing two 

 koodoo cows, suddenly saw a herd of seven giraffe 

 in full flight about a quarter of a mile to our right. 

 We at once left the animals we were pursuing to 

 turn our attention to the nobler quarry, and gallop- 

 ing obliquely towards them, soon began to lessen the 

 distance between us. I was badly mounted, my horse 

 being not only slow, but excessively lazy, requiring 

 a constant application of spur and sjambok to keep 

 him going. However, as I have said before, giraffes, 

 if not hard pressed, do not go at a very great pace, 

 so that before long we were within 100 yards of 

 them. Even in the ardour of the chase, it struck 

 me as a glorious sight to see these huge beasts 

 dashing along in front, clattering over the stones, 

 or bursting a passage through opposing bushes, their 

 long, graceful necks stretcheci forwards, sometimes 

 bent almost to the earth to avoid horizontal branches, 

 and their bushy black tails twisted up over their 

 backs. And how easily and with what little exertion 

 they seemed to get over the ground with that long, 

 sweeping stride of theirs ! Yet they were going at 

 a great rate, for I felt that my old nag was doing 

 his best, and I could not lessen the distance between 

 us by an inch. I now saw that Dorehill was about 

 to make a push, and as the horse he was riding was 

 pretty fast, I knew that he would press them into a 



