314 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



form, after an uneventful stalk which culminated in a shot 

 with the Winchester at a hundred and seventy yards. In 

 most places this particular stretch of country was not 

 suitable for galloping, the ground being rotten, rilled with 

 holes, and covered with tall, coarse grass. One evening 

 we saw two lions half a mile away; I tried to ride them, 

 but my horse fell twice in the first hundred and fifty yards 

 and I could not even keep them in sight. Another day 

 we got a glimpse of two lions, quarter of a mile off, glid- 

 ing away among the thorns. They went straight to the 

 river and swam across it. More surprising was the fact 

 that a monkey, which lost its head when we surprised it in 

 a tree by the river, actually sprang plump into the stream, 

 and swam, easily and strongly, across it. 



One day we had a most interesting experience with a 

 cow giraffe. We saw her a long way off and stalked to 

 within a couple of hundred yards before we could make out 

 her sex. She was standing under some thorn-trees, occa- 

 sionally shifting her position for a few yards, and then 

 again standing motionless with her head thrust in among 

 the branches. She was indulging in a series of noon naps. 

 At last, when she stood and went to sleep again, I walked 

 up to her, Cuninghame and our two gun-bearers, Bakhari 

 and Kongoni, following a hundred yards behind. When 

 I was within forty yards, in plain sight, away from cover, 

 she opened her eyes and looked drowsily at me; but I stood 

 motionless and she dozed off again. This time I walked up 

 to within ten feet of her. Nearer I did not care to venture, 

 as giraffe strike and kick very hard with their hooves, 

 and, moreover, occasionally strike with the head, the blow 

 seemingly not being delivered with the knobby, skin- 



