XI HEIGHT OF GIRAFFES 217 



get into very good condition, and are sometimes so 

 fat in the early part of the dry season — May and 

 June — that they probably never get into bad order 

 for the remainder of the year. I have shot giraffe 

 cows whose sides when the hide was peeled off 

 them were covered with a thick layer of white fat, 

 from half an inch to over two inches in thickness 

 from shoulder to rump. There is no finer meat to 

 be got in the whole world than that of a fat giraffe 

 cow, and the soft white fat when rendered out is 

 equal to the best lard. The tongue and marrow- 

 bones are also great delicacies, and the hide is 

 valuable for waggon whips, sjamboks, and the soles 

 of boots. No wonder the South African frontiers- 

 men, whether Boers or Britons, were always keen 

 giraffe hunters. 



It has often been stated that giraffe bulls in 

 South Africa grow to a height of 19 feet, whilst the 

 cows attain to a stature of from 16 to 17 feet. I 

 unfortunately only measured the standing height of 

 two bull giraffes ; both of which, however, were old 

 animals, and seemed to me to be fine specimens of 

 their kind. One of these, the head of which I still 

 have in my collection, measured, when his legs and 

 neck had been pulled out into as straight a line as 

 possible, just 17 feet, the measurement having been 

 taken between two stakes, the one driven into the 

 ground at the base of the forefoot, the other at the 

 top of the short horns. This giraffe was undoubtedly 

 a very large animal, and I remember very well Mr. 

 Rowland Ward remarking on the size of its skull, 

 compared to one which had lately been brought 

 from Somaliland by the late Mr. F. L. James, as 

 they both lay side by side in Piccadilly. The other 

 giraffe I measured — also a big bull, or, at any rate, 

 an old one — could only have stood 16 feet 6 inches in 

 height, in a straight line from the heel of the forefoot 

 to the top of the horns. The original old South 



