294 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



erally in herds varying from twelve to sixteen ; but I have not 

 unfrequently met with herds containing thirty individuals, and on 

 one occasion I counted forty together ; this however was owing to 

 chance, and about sixteen may be reckoned as the average number 

 of a herd. These herds are composed of giraffes of various sizes, 

 from the young giraffe of nine or ten feet in height, to the dark chest- 

 nut-colored old bull of the herd, whose exalted head towers above 

 his companions, generally attaining a height of upward of eighteen 

 ff.t. The females are of lower stature and more delicately 

 formed than the males, their height averaging from sixteen to 

 seventeen feet. Some writers have discovered ugliness and a 

 want of grace in the giraffe, but I consider that he is one of the 

 most strikingly beautiful animals in the creation ; and when a herd 

 of them is seen scattered through a grove of the picturesque 

 parasol-topped acacias which adorn their native plains, and on 

 whose uppermost shoots they arr enabled to browse by the colossal 

 height with which nature has so admirably endowed them, he 

 must indeed be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace 

 and dignity in all their movements. 



On the 25th, at dawn of day, we inspanned, and trekked abou* 

 five hours in a northeasterly course, through a boundless open 

 country, sparingly adorned with dwarfish old trees. In the dis- 

 tance the long-sought mountains of Bamangwato at length loomed 

 blue before me. Ws halted beside a glorious fountain, which at 

 once made me forget all the cares and difficulties I had encoun- 

 tered in reaching it. The name of this fountain was Massouey, but 

 I at once christened it " the Elephant's own Fountain." This 

 was a very remarkable spot on the southern borders of endless 

 elephant forests, at which I had at length arrived. The fountain 

 was deep and strong, situated in a hollow at the eastern extremity 

 of an extensive vley, and its margin was surrounded by a level 

 stratum of solid old red sandstone. Here and there lay a thick 

 layer of soil upon the reck, and this was packed flat w\h the 

 fresh spoor of elephants. Around the water's edge the very rock 

 was worn down by the gigantic feet which for ages had trod 

 den there. 



