With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



one cow. Our joy was intense over this piece of rare 

 luck, and we camped near the river in order to undertake 

 the preparation of the skins. By putting forth all our 

 efforts we succeeded, in spite of the burning sun, in 

 making really valuable zoological specimens of them, and 

 thus saving them for science. The cow was pregnant, 

 the young being of a dark coffee-colour. We were able 

 to treat its skin successfully also. These operations called 

 forth the best efforts of every one in the caravan ; and it 

 was a matter for great satisfaction that they were crowned 

 with success. 



Here I may give the measurements of the bull. The 

 length of the skin from the muzzle was 4 metres ; the 

 greatest girth, round the belly, 3*60 ; the skull weighed 

 25 kilos; that of the cow, 15. 



As rain set in, we had to salt the skins. The animals 

 were, as usual, covered with ticks (Rhipicephalus appen- 

 diculatus], those pests- of the African buffalo. 



So, by good luck, I had at last seen a herd of buffaloes 

 by daylight out in the open ! Until then I had never 

 beheld a buffalo except in thickets or among reeds. 

 We reflected mournfully on the time when, before the 

 devastations of the rinderpest, such a sight was to be 

 encountered daily in these regions of East Africa. 



Two days later the Prince brought down a male 

 giraffe, but we did not succeed in preparing the skin. Like 

 all males, it had five projections from its forehead. Its 

 measurements were as follows : Length of line from nose 

 to the longest of these forehead projections, 88 centimetres; 

 length of projections, 22 centimetres ; circumference of 



66 



