In Wildest Africa -* 



timorous animals have noted our approach and are already- 

 making away — stopping at moments to glance at us — into 

 a dense thorn-thicket. The wind favours us, so I quickly 

 decide to make a detour to the right and cut them off. 

 After a breathless run through the brushwood I succeed 

 in getting within a few paces of one of the old members 

 of the herd. This way of circumventing a herd of 

 giraffes — my followers helping me by moving about all 

 over the place, so as to put them off the scent — has not 

 often proved successful with me, because it can only be 

 managed when both wind and the formation of the country 

 are in one's favour. 



To-day I have no mind to kill the beautiful long- 

 limbed beast, but it is delightful to get into such close 

 touch with him. Now he is off, stepping out again, 

 swinging his long tail, his immense neck dipping and 

 rising like the mast of a sea-tossed ship, and the rest 

 of the herd with him. 



Now, just because I have no thought of hunting, 

 every kind of wild animal crosses my path ! Their 

 number and variety are beyond belief We come upon 

 more zebras, oryx antelopes, hartebeests. Grant's gazelles, 

 impalla antelopes ; upon ostriches, guinea-fowl i^Numida 

 reichenowi and Aery Ilium vulturinum, Hardw.), and 

 francolins. The recent rains seem to have conjured 

 them all into existence here as though by magic. 



But everything else has to give precedence to the 

 elephant-tracks, which now are all mixed up, though 

 leading clearly to the next watering-place, towards which 

 we are directing our steps down a way trodden quite 



400 



