26O GIRAFFE HUNTING. 



soon puts them all right, and gives them once more 

 the remarkable elasticity of their general carriage. 

 It is these cool nights and really chilly mornings that 

 make these upland plains so healthy to the European 

 constitution, for the heat of the days is prostrating, 

 especially an hour or two after the sun has passed 

 the zenith ; but there is one thing that should be 

 remembered, there is not a particle of damp unless 

 during the rainy season existing away from the 

 environs of the rivers and valleys. In proof of this, 

 the finest metal mechanism will not suffer from rust, 

 although exposed for weeks, even months, to the full 

 action of the atmosphere. 



Fires were soon lighted and the cooking pots got 

 under full swing ; the savoury smell from the latter 

 bringing the most disinclined from the warm corner 

 in which he had passed the night. 



My drivers and the Massara, without waiting to 

 feed, started off prospecting. Their absence was 

 but short ; they had sighted giraffes, and within a 

 short distance of camp. The dogs, ever troublesome 

 when not wanted, were soon secured, the horses 

 saddled, and forth we went, inwardly feeling that 

 we were about to enjoy our sport under the most 

 favourable [circumstances a sport deserving of ap- 

 preciation, when I state that I believe that there are 

 scarcely thirty white men living who have had the 

 chance to participate in it. 



Deer-stalking, salmon-fishing, and tiger-shooting 

 can easily be obtained by those who have long purses, 

 but giraffe-hunting requires more ; for, independent 

 of the expense, weeks and months of patience must 

 be spent, treck, treck, trecking, before you arrive in 

 the habitat of this colossal game. Every year it is 

 being driven further into the interior, and soon, like 

 the white rhinoceros, scarcely a specimen will be 

 found south of the Zambesi, and to the greater part 

 of the northern shores of this grand river you cannot 



