330 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xti 



This bull was a fine specimen, coloured almost exactly 

 like the giraffes of the Athi and Sotik, but with much 

 more horn development. T doubt whether this five- 

 horned kind is more than a local race. The bulls have 

 been described as very dark : but the one thus shot, a 

 big and old master bull, was unusually light, and in the 

 herd there were individuals of every shade, much the 

 darkest being a rather small cow. Indeed, in none of 

 the varieties of giraffe did we find that the old bulls 

 were markedly darker than the others ; many of them 

 were dark, but some of the biggest were light coloured, 

 and the darkest individuals in a herd were often cows. 

 Giraffes, by the way, do sometimes lie down to sleep, 

 but not often. ^ 



In order that Heller might take care of the giraffe 

 skin we had to spend a couple of days where we were 

 tlien camped. The tents were pitched near a spring of 

 good water, beside a slight valley in which there were 

 marshy spots and reed beds. The country was rolling, 

 and covered with fine grass, imfortunately so tall as to 

 afford secure cover for lions. There were stretches bare 

 of trees, and other stretches with a sparse, scattered 

 growth of low thorns or of the big glossy-leaved bush 

 which I have spoken of as the African jessamine because 

 of the singularly sweet and jessamine-like fragrance of 



^ This is just one of the points as to which no one observer 

 should dogmatize or try to lay down general laws with no excep- 

 tions. Moreover, the personal equation of even the most honest 

 observer must always be taken into account in considering not 

 merely matters like this, but even such things as measurements. 

 For example, Neuman, in his "Elephant Hunting," gives measure- 

 ments of the height of both elephants and Grcvy's zebra. Our 

 measurements made the elephants taller and the big zebras less tall 

 than he found them. Measurements of the lengths of lions made 

 by different observers are for this reason rarely of much value for 

 purposes of comparison. 



