202 After Big Game in Central Africa 



and the horizon is scanned ; but nobody sees any- 

 thing. 



A few days afterwards we see a herd of five or six 

 giraffes four hundred yards away. The telescope, 

 which I have expressly carried with me for several 

 days, enables me to see them splendidly as they 

 stalk up and down with their long legs, and swing 

 their long necks backwards and forwards. We throw 

 ourselves to the ground, although a long distance 

 from them, and, while my men remain, the Barotse 

 hunter and I drag ourselves forward on our stomachs, 



o 



from time to time risking a glance, to disappear again 

 in the grass. When we find plants a little taller we 

 get on to our feet, and, bent double with our chests 

 against our knees, and our heads low, we glide between 

 the bushes. As soon as the bushes cease, and the 

 short grass reappears, without anything -to hide us, 

 we begin once more our slow snake-like movement 

 on our stomachs. We crawl thus for about one 

 hundred yards. During this time the giraffes con- 

 tinue to walk about quietly among the trees, stopping 

 from time to time, several of them eating the leaves 

 of the trees in which their heads are hidden or 

 buried. 



A bare space now comes, as difficult for us to cross 

 as a fathomless torrent : so we drag ourselves over it 

 with great care, letting some trees farther away inter- 

 pose like a screen between our position and the large 

 animals. This snakish movement is very tiring in the 

 sun, for every yard you have to stop with your chest 

 against the ground, get hold of your rifle, which you 



