In Wildest Africa 



-»> 



hunters may hunt giraffes with poisoned arrows. I have 

 often met natives in possession of freshly killed giraffe 

 flesh. 



In most cases bushes and trees are a great hindrance 

 to the taking of photographs, especially of large herds. At 

 such times it was as good as a game of chess between the 

 photographic sportsman and the animals. For hours I 

 have followed them with a camera ready to snapshot, but 

 the far-sighted beasts have always frustrated my plans. 

 Thus passed hours, days and weeks. But good luck would 

 come back again, and I was sometimes able to develop an 

 excellent negative in a camp swarming with mosquitoes. 



It is especially in the peculiar light attendant on the 

 rainy season and amidst tall growths that giraffes mingle 

 so with their surroundings. It is only when the towering 

 forms are silhouetted against the sky that they can be 

 clearly seen on the open velt. At midday, when the velt 

 is shimmering with a thousand waves of light, when every- 

 thing seems aglow with the dazzling sun, even the most 

 practised eye can scarcely distinguish the outlines of single 

 objects. By such a light the sandy-coloured oryx antelopes 

 and the stag-like waterbuck look coal-black ; the uninitiated 

 take zebras for donkeys — they appear so grey — and rhino- 

 ceroses resting on the velt for ant-hills. But giraffes 

 especially mingle with the surrounding mimosa woods at 

 this hour in such a way as only those who have seen it 

 could believe possible. 



When you see these animals in their wild state, your 

 thoughts naturally revert to the penned-up tame specimens 

 in zoological gardens or those preserved in museums. 



568 



