TIIE GIRAFFE. 



Sir W Cornwallis Harris's first Tiew of a Giraffe. 



Some of the most animating accounts of Giraffe hunts are contained in the work of Sir W. Cornwallis 

 Harris. He says, "It was on the morning of our departure from the residence of his Amazoola majesty, 

 that I first actually saw the Giraffe. At dawn of that day, a large party of hungry savages, with four of 

 the _ Hottentots on horseback, having accompanied us across the Mariqua, we formed a long line, and, 

 having drawn a great extent of country blank, divided into two parties. Beginning, at length, to despair 

 -f success, an object, which had repeatedly attracted my eye, but which I had as often persuaded myself 

 was nothing more than the branchless stump of some withered tree, suddenly shifted its position, and the 

 next moment I distinctly perceived that singular form of which the apparition had oft times visited my 

 .-lumbers, but upon whose reality I now gazed for the first time. Gliding rapidly among the trees, above 



the topmost branches, of many of which its graceful head nodded like 

 some lofty pine, all doubt was in another moment at an end — it was the 

 stately the long-sought Giraffe. Putting spurs to my horse, I presently 

 found myself half choked with excitement, rattling at the heels of an ani- 

 mal which, to me, had been a stranger even in its captive state, and which, 

 thus to meet free on its native plains, has fallen to the lot of but few of 

 the votaries of the chase. Sailing before me with incredible velocity, his 

 long swan-like neck keeping time to the eccentric motion of his stilt-like 

 legs — his ample black tail curled above his back — seemed to leave whole 

 leagues behind him at each stride. 



Despairing over such a rough country of improving my acquaintance 

 with this ogre in seven league boots, I dismounted, and the mottled carcass 

 ] >resenting a fair and inviting mark, I had the satisfaction of hearing two 

 balls tell roundly upon him. But he never slackened his pace^ and pushed 

 on so far ahead during the time that I was reloading, that, after remounting. 

 I had some difficulty in keeping sight of him among the trees." Having at 

 length got ahead of the flying Giraffe, Mr. Harris was mortified at finding 

 his rifle so injured, that he was unable to fire upon the animal. Many 

 days afterward, however, he had the satisfaction of bringing one of the 

 stately creatures down, when, tossing his turbanless cap into the air, alone 

 in the wild wood, he hurraed with bursting exultation, and unsaddling his 



steed, sank, exhausted, beside the noble prize. 



(140) 



Giraffei 



