THE GIRAFFE. 229 



also a number of straps from olf the yokes. The dogs 

 kept up a loud and incessant barking until the day 

 dawned, when I shot one of the hyaenas, and the rest 

 made off. 



On the 11th we were in the yoke soon after day- 

 break. It was a bitter cold morning, ice a quarter of 

 an inch in thickness covering the pools of water. We 

 were now clear of the extensive mountain ranges 

 through which our road had wound since leaving Ba- 

 katla, and were approaching toward the southeastern 

 limits of the great Kalahari desert, on whose borders 

 Booby is situated. We continued our march, steering 

 northwest, in which direction the distant blue hills 

 (pointed out to me as the position of Booby) shot ab- 

 ruptly above the unvaried sameness of the intervening 

 forest scenery. To the west, one eternal ocean-like 

 expanse of gray forest stretched away in a level and 

 unbroken plain, terminated only by the far horizon. 

 Having performed a march of three hoars, we crossed 

 a small stream, where I outspanned to breakfast. 



This day was to me rather a memorable one, as the 

 first on which I saw and slew the lofty, graceful-look- 

 ing giraffe or camelopard, with which, during many 

 years of my life, I had longed to form an acquaint- 

 ance.* 



* These gis^antic and exquisitely beautiful animals, wliich are admi- 

 rably formed by nature to adorn the fair forests that clothe the bound- 

 less plains of the interior, ai'e widely distributed throughout the inte 

 rior of Southern Africa, but are nowhere to be met with in great nura 

 bers. In countries unmolested by the intrusive foot of man, the gi- 

 raffe is found generally in herds varying from twelve to sixteen ; but I 

 have nut 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 chestnut- 

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



