302 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



the trees and bushes were leafless ; but instead of leaves 

 they almost all carried thorns, the worst being those of 

 the wait-a-bit, which tore our clothes, hands, and faces. 

 We found the giraffe three or four miles away from the 

 river, in an absolutely waterless region, densely covered 

 with these leafless wait-a-bit thorn bushes. Hanging 

 among the bare bushes, by the way, we roused two or 

 three of the queer, diurnal, golden-winged, slate-coloured 

 bats ; they flew freely in the glare of the sunlight, 

 minding it as little as they did the furnace-like heat. 

 We found the really dense wait-a-bit thorn thickets 

 quite impenetrable, whereas the giraffe moved through 

 them witli utter unconcern. But the giraffe's in- 

 difference to thorns is commonplace compared to its 

 indiflerence to water. These particular giraffes were not 

 drinking either at the river or at the one or two streams 

 which were ruiming into it ; and in certa in places girafle 

 will subsist for months without drinking at all. How 

 the waste and evaporation of moisture from their huge 

 bodies is supplied is one of the riddles of biology. 



We could not get a bull giraffe, and it was only a 

 bull that I wanted. I was much interested, however, 

 in coming up to a cow asleep. She stood with her neck 

 drooping slightly forward, occasionally stamping or 

 twitching an ear, like a horse when asleep standing. 

 1 saw her legs flrst, tiirough the bushes, and Anally 

 walked directly up to her in the open, until I stood 

 facing her at thirty yards. When she at last suddenly 

 saw me, she came nearer to the execution of a gambol 

 than any other giraffe I have ever seen. 



Another day we went after buffalo. We left camp 

 before sunrise, riding along parallel to the river to find 

 the spoor of a herd which had drunk and was returning 

 to the haunts, away from the river, in which they here 



