PERFUME EMITTED BV THE GIRAFFE. 233 



wonder at her extreme beauty, while her soft dark eye, 

 with its silky fringe, looked down imploringly at mc, 

 and I really felt a pang of sorrow in this moment of 

 triumph for the blood I was shedding. Pointing my 

 rifle toward the skies, I sent a bullet through her neck. 

 On receiving it, she reared high on her hind legs, and 

 fell backward with a heavy crash, making the earth 

 shake around her. A thick stream of dark blood spout- 

 ed out from the wound, her colossal limbs quivered for 

 a moment, and she expired. 



I had little time to contemplate the prize I had won. 

 Night was fast setting in, and it was very questionable 

 if I should succeed in regaining my wagons ; so, hav- 

 ing cut off the tail of the giraffe, which was adorned 

 with a bushy tuft of flowing black hair, I took " one 

 last fond look," and rode hard for the spoor of the wag- 

 ons, which I succeeded in reaching just as it was dark. 



No pen nor words can convey to a sportsman what 

 it is to ride in the midst of a troop of gigantic giraffes : 

 it must be experienced to be understood. They emit- 

 ted a powerful perfume, which in the chase came hot 

 in my face, reminding me of the smell of a hive of 

 heather honey in September. The greater part of this 

 chase led through bushes of the wait-a-bit thorn of the 

 most virulent description, which covered my legs and 

 arms with blood long before I had killed the giraffe. I 

 rode as usual in the kilt, with my arms bare to my 

 shoulder. It was Chapelpark of Badenoch's old gray 

 kilt, but in this chase it received a death blow which 

 it never afterward recovered. 



On the 12tli we performed two long marches through 

 thickly-wooded plains, the spoor of camelopard being 

 extremely abundant. On the IStli we cast lcA,i^e the 

 cattle at dawn of day. Breakfast being fiubhed, W9 



