218 THE STORY OF THE WAPI. 



the antelopes and giraffes; and Sir Harry went so far as to say that it was 

 a short-necked hornless giraffe — similar to the Helladotherium, the bones 

 of which have been found at Pikermi, near Athens, and were reconstructed 

 as a complete skeleton by Professor Gaudry, of Paris. Sir Harry suggested 

 that the okapi must be considered as a living survival of that animal, and 

 assigned it to the genus Helladotherium. 



This was extraordinarily correct and sound reasoning. It has been abun- 

 dantly confirmed by careful study of the specimen sent to London ex- 

 cepting that it has seemed necessary to separate the okapi, on account of 

 some minor features in the structure of the skull, from Helladotherium. 

 The okapi is now known as Ocapia Johnstoni. 



Sir Harry Johnston at once dispatched the okapi's skin and two skulls 

 to the Natural History Museum. 



He rightly declared this to be the most remarkable discovery in the 

 zoology of Africa made in the last hundred years. 



The photographs here reproduced show the animal as set up by Mr. 

 Ward and an enlarged view of the head. The shoulder is higher as com- 

 pared with the rump than in Sir Harry's restoration, and the neck is some- 

 what longer than it seemed to him, and straight as is that of a giraffe. 

 Probably the okapi, like the giraffe, carries its neck habitually sloping- 

 forward so as to give a continuous straight line from the back of the head 

 to the root of the tail. A very interesting feature is the presence of two 

 little tufts on the forehead, which correspond to and represent the horns 

 of the giraffe, though they cannot themselves be called horns. An ex- 

 amination of the skulls of the okapi show that there is no bony outgrowth 

 corresponding to these knobs, although the skull is raised on each side 

 above the orbit into a small domelike eminence. 



The coloring and marking of the hairy hide of the okapi is very peculiar. 

 Its pattern is well shown in our illustration. The body is of a rich maroon- 

 brown color. 



The tract of forest inhabited by the okapi is about as big as the prin- 

 cipality of Wales, and there may be some 2,000 or 3,000 head living there. 

 It is undoubtedly a true inhabitant of the forest, elusive and difficult to dis- 

 cover. Probably we shall soon hear more of it and receive additional speci- 

 mens, though it is not likely, on account of its frequenting the forest depths, 

 to be threatened or exterminated by too eager sportsmen for long years to 

 come. 



