A TROOP OF GIRAFFES. S59 



giraffes were slowly advancing within two hundred 

 yards, stretching their graceful necks, and gazing in 

 wonder at the unwonted wagons. Grasping my rifle, 

 I now mounted Colesberg, and rode slowly toward them. 

 They continued gazing at the wagons until I was with- 

 in one hundred yards of them, when, whisking their 

 long tails over their rumps, they made off at an easy 

 canter. As I pressed upon them they increased their 

 pace ; but Colesberg had much the speed of them, ai>d 

 before we had proceeded half a mile I was riding by 

 the shoulder of the dark-chestnut old bull, whose head 

 towered high above the rest. Letting fly at the gal- 

 lop, I wounded him behind the shoulder ; soon after 

 which I broke him from the herd, and presently, goino- 

 ahead of him, he came to a stand. I then gave him a 

 second bullet, somewhere near the first. These two 

 shots had taken effect, and he was now in my power, 

 but I would not lay him low so far from camp ; so, 

 having waited until he had regained his breath, I drove 

 him half way back toward the wagons. Here he be- 

 came obstreperous ; so, loading one barrel, and point- 

 ing my rifle toward the clouds, I shot him in the throat, 

 when, rearing high, he fell backward and expired. This 

 was a magnificent specimen of the giraffe, measuring 

 upward of eighteen feet in height. I stood for nearly 

 half an hour engrossed in the contemplation of his ex- 

 treme beauty and gigantic proportions ; and, if there 

 had been no elephants, I could have exclaimed, like 

 Duke Alexander of Gordon when he killed the famous 

 old stag with seventeen tine, " Now I can die happy." 

 But 1 longed for an encounter with the noble elephants, 

 and I thought little more of the giraffe than if I had 

 killed a gemsbok or an eland. 



In the afternoon I removed my wagons to a correct 



