In Wildest Africa * 



giraffe itself was to he: found in large herds in many parts 

 of Africa. The first giraffe of which we know appeared 

 in the Roman arena. Ahout two hundred years ago we: 

 are told some specimens were hrought over to Europe, and 

 caused much astonishment. The Nubian menageries some 

 years ago brought a goodly number of the strange beasts 

 to our zoological gardens. 1 Hut how many people have 

 seen giraffes in their native haunts ? When, in 1806, I saw 

 them thus lor the first time, I realised how thin and 

 wretched our captive specimens are by the side of the 

 splendid creatures of the velt. Le Yaillant, in his accounts 

 of his travels in Cape Colony and the country known to-day 

 as German South-West Ainca, gives a spirited description 

 of these animals, and tells how after much labour and 

 trouble he managed to take a carefully dried skin to the 

 coast and to send it to Germany. That was seventy years 

 ago. Since then many Europeans have seen giratles, but 

 they have told us very little about them. '1 he German 

 explorer I )r. Richard Hohm has given us wonderfully 

 accurate information about them and their ways. Hut the 

 beautiful water-colours so excellently drawn by a hand so 

 soon to be disabled in Africa, were lost in that dreadful 

 conflagration in which his hunting-box on the peaceful \Vala 

 River and most of his diaries were destroyed. l)r. Richard 

 Kandt, whilst on his expeditions in search ot the sources 

 of the Xile, found the charred remains ol the hut. " I bi 

 sunt, cjui ante nos in mundo lucre?" 



Zoological experts tell us that there are several species 



