THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE 



much like those made by the oxen, although considerably 

 larger and more oval. Some of the giraffe countries are 

 very " thick " — i. e., overgrown with thorn and mimosa 

 trees and the strange-looking euphorbia, a cactus-like plant 

 which grows up into large, often queer-shaped, trees, while 

 the sharp-pointed seesal, or fiber plant — from which a 

 superior kind of rope is made — mercilessly stings right 

 through trousers, leggings, and even the thickest boots. 

 If the track is quite fresh and the wind '' right," one may 

 soon catch up with a giraffe, if he thinks himself undis- 

 turbed, and it is very interesting indeed to observe the 

 huge animal feasting among the top branches of his fa- 

 vorite trees. He may stroll from tree to tree of apparently 

 not only the same kind, but also in the very same condi- 

 tion, and yet some of them he will just only sniff at, while 

 of the others he seems greatly to enjoy the leaves and 

 young shoots. Great care has to be taken in the stalking 

 of the giraffe, for from his exalted position he will very 

 quickly notice anything that moves anywhere within a 

 radius of several hundred yards or more, if the stalker is 

 not well hidden behind some thick cover. 



The last giraffe I stalked I found on the beautiful 

 Laikipia Plateau, not far from the upper part of the Gar- 

 domurtu River, and southwest of that stream. When I 

 first noticed his track across our path, it ran down in the 

 very direction from which we had come. Concluding, 

 therefore, that we already must have been noticed by the 

 wary animal — for I was at the time trekking along with 

 over sixty men — I did not intend to follow this track. 

 I then told my men to wait a few seconds and then fol- 

 low at some distance, as quietly as possible, in case there 



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