TIME AN OBJECT. 93 



the better classes of Anglo Saxons, the pure bred, 

 unadulterated Indian degraded, and strange as it 

 may appear, almost anomalous to what I have said, 

 the former when properly treated will become a 

 faithful, reliable, and happy servant, the red man 

 never. The one willingly accepts the superiority of 

 the European, the Indian never does so. 



But to return to the giraffes. Umpiqua with- 

 strained our impetuosity, for he had formed a plan 

 of campaign, which in his belief was tolerably certain 

 to lead to success and in which all his companions 

 concurred. It should be known, however, by the 

 reader that these animals when they go to water, 

 unless they are travelling" to new pastures and have 

 to cross rivers in their route, invariably return after 

 they have drunk by the path by which they have 

 come. Trading on this knowledge, the old hunter 

 desired us to accompany him, so as to cut off the 

 game's retreat, while Jim and some others headed 

 it, and so compelled it to run the gauntlet of a 

 position on their trail, where we would be secreted. 

 Time was an object in carrying out our finesse, so 

 both parties at once started on their respective 

 errands. Half an hour's rapid walking brought us 

 to the fresh trail, to the leeward position of it we 

 secured an admirable situation for shooting, distant 

 about thirty yards from where the prey were ex- 

 pected to come. On the weather side we might 

 have got much closer, but a giraffe's olfactory organs 



