240 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXVII. 



does, like a pendulum, and literally imparting to the 

 animal the appearance of a piece of machinery in 

 motion. Naturally gentle, timid, and peaceable, 

 the unfortunate giraffe has no means of protecting 

 itself but with its heels ; but even when hemmed 

 into a corner, it seldom resorted to this mode of 

 defence. I have before noticed the courage evinced 

 by our horses, in the pursuit of game. Even when 

 brought into actual contact with these almost un- 

 earthly quadrupeds, they evinced no symptom of 

 alarm, a circumstance which may possibly be traced 

 10 their meagre diet. 



The colossal height, and apparent disproportions 

 of this extraordinary animal, long classed it with 

 the unicorn and the sphinx of the ancients, and 

 induced a belief that it belonged rather to the group 

 of chimeras with which the regions of imagination 

 are tenanted, than existed amongst the actual works 

 of nature. Of its form and habits, no very precise 

 notions were obtained until within the last forty 

 years; and even now, the extant delineations are 

 far from the truth, having been taken from crippled 

 prison^s instead of from specimens free in their 

 native deserts. The giraffe is by no means a com- 

 mon animal, even at its head- quarters. We seldom 

 found them without having followed the trail, and 

 never saw more than five-and-thirty in a day.* 

 The senses of sight, hearing, and smell, are acute 



* A traveller whom I met iu the Cape Colony, assured me, 

 before I visited the interior, that he had himself counted eight 

 hundred giraffes in a single day ; and during his travels, had 



