SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 49 



is the most excellent eating, a kind of venisony beef. They 

 were to be seen nearly every day in herds of from five to thirty. 

 Shooting them on foot was a difficult matter, their great height 

 giving them an extended view. I never stalked but two a 

 delicate head peering over a mimosa-tree nearly always detect- 

 ing the coming danger before I could get within reasonable 

 distance with my smooth-bore. There is no difficulty in riding 

 them down (as we had, of course, sometimes to do for the men 

 when other game was scarce) provided you are a light weight 

 and a fair rider, for a horse requires more driving up to this 

 animal than to any other. The towering height and the ungainly 

 sawing motion appear to terrify him ; and to these must, I think, 

 be added the scent. Horses have very sensitive noses, and 

 try to avoid giraffes, as in India they do camels. A good- 

 couraged beast soon conquers his fears, but I have had regular 

 fights with faint-hearted ones. Get as good a start as possible, 

 press your game as much as you can for 300 or 400 yards for 

 press them you must, or you may ride after their tails all day 

 and you are alongside ; a shot in the gallop with the gun across 

 the pommel brings the poor thing to the ground, and you are 

 ashamed of yourself if it has been done wantonly. Eland 

 hunting, from horseback, may be classed with giraffe, as very 

 tame after the novelty is over. 



I would utter two words of warning with regard to hunting 

 the giraffe. Do not ride close behind him, for in his panic he 

 sometimes lashes out most vigorously I have had his heels 

 whiz very ominously within a few inches of my head ; and 

 my friend Vardon, in pistolling one that was standing wounded, 

 only just missed what might have been serious injury from a 

 vicious stamp of the forefoot and be careful after you have 

 fired to slacken speed at once, or pull your horse to the right, 

 lest your victim fall on you. 



I have measured bulls quite 1 8 feet 6 feet of leg, 6 feet of 

 body, 6 feet of neck. For their peculiarity of shape, shared by 

 other African animals, there must be a reason. Now we can 

 understand that ' a deer with a neck that was longer by half than 



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