THE GIRAFFE. 113 



my eyes in the direction indicated by his hand, I 

 perceived with surprise a giraffe, under a great ebony 

 tree, assailed by my dogs. I thought this must be 

 another one, and ran towards him. It was the same, 

 which had got up, but which, just as I was about to 

 fire a second time, fell down dead." 



This large game was becoming scarce, and the 

 people of our traveller were almost dying of hunger. 

 They shared the animal amongst themselves, first 

 selecting for the master some choice bits, which he ate 

 broiled, and which he found excellent. The thin bones 

 placed on a brazier of hot coals furnished marrow as 

 white and firm as mutton tallow, and was very appe- 

 tizing. " I had never before seen any so fine, and I 

 regretted much not having any bread to make toast 

 with it. I had a certain quantity of it melted, with 

 which I filled the giraffe's bladder ; and this provision 

 served me for a long time in cooking cutlets from the 

 same animal." 



But these material necessities could not make Le 

 Vaillant forget the interests of science. We shall be 

 glad to learn the means which he adopted in the midst 

 of a desert in central Africa to prepare the skin of the 

 gigantic animal. 



" Klaas," he writes (his factotum), " had swept and 

 levelled a piece of ground about twenty feet square 

 I had the skin spread out there, with the hair under- 



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