GIRAFFE 369 



water-supply, so that for some six or seven months, inclusive of the 

 African winter, the giraffes, like many antelopes, must subsist each year 

 without water. Despite its dryness, the country carries a scattered forest 

 of acacia, upon the leaves of which they subsist. Since no mention 

 appears to be made by those familiar with the country of giraffes 

 eating water-melons, it would seem that they are independent of liquid 

 of any kind ; and if this be really the case with these animals, there is 

 no reason why it should not hold good with regard to antelopes. In 

 the opinion of a well-known sportsman, it is probable that previous to 

 the introduction of firearms giraffes were much more frequently to be 

 found on open plains, on their way from one piece of forest to another, 

 than is the case at the present day. 



In many parts of Central and East Africa giraffes must necessarily 

 be stalked on foot, and as they are some of the shyest and most wary 

 of all game, while their lofty stature endows them with an enormously 

 wide field of vision, their pursuit demands great skill and caution on 

 the part of the sportsman. In the territories immediately north of 

 the Orange river giraffe-hunting in the early days of South African 

 sport was, however, carried out on horseback ; and there is abundant 

 testimony as to the excitement of a tail-on-end chase after a troop of 

 these gigantic quadrupeds. As Mr. H. A. Bryden well observes : 

 " The first sight of a troop of wild giraffe is certainly one of the most 

 wonderful things in nature. The uncommon shape, the great height, 

 the long slouching stride, the slender necks, reaching hither and 

 thither among the spreading leafage of the camel-thorn trees, the rich 

 colouring of the animals — all these combine to render the first meeting 

 with giraffes in their native haunts one of the most striking and 

 memorable of experiences." 



But, as the same writer also observes, the sport is apt to pall even on 

 the most enthusiastic of British sportsmen ; for, after all, a giraffe yields 

 little in the way of satisfactory and easily preserved trophies, and to 

 continue a senseless slaughter of these beautiful creatures is in truth 

 but little short of murder. No such compunction seems, however, to 

 have affected the skin -hunters — whether white or black — to whose 

 incessant persecution is attributed the extermination of the giraffe 

 from large portions of its original habitat. In Africa itself the value of 

 a giraffe-hide ranged, some years ago, between £a, and £6 ; the chief 

 local uses being for sjamboks (whips) and native sandals. 



Giraffes when at their ordinary pace move the two limbs of each 

 side simultaneously, and are in this unlike most ruminants, whose legs 

 are moved in alternate pairs. This gives a peculiar movement quite 



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