In Wildest Africa -^ 



It is the event of a lifetime to have been the witness 

 of so strange and unsuspected a condition of things as this 

 friendship between two such dissimilar animals. The extent 

 of my good luck may be estimated from the fact that the 

 famous traveller Le Vaillant, more than seventy years ago, 

 wished so ardently to see a giraffe In Its natural surround- 

 ings, if only once, that he went to South Africa for that 

 purpose, and that, having achieved It on a single occasion, 

 as he relates In his work, he was quite overjoyed. Although 

 I was aware that herds of giraffes frequented this region 

 without fear of the elephants, It was a complete revelation 

 to me to find an old bull-giraffe living In perfect harmony 

 for days together with two elephants for the sake of mutual 

 protection. I can only account for this strange alliance 

 by the need for such mutual protection. The giraffe Is 

 accustomed to use Its eyes to assure itself of Its safety, 

 whilst elephants scent the breeze with their trunks, 

 raised like the letter S for the purpose. In these valleys 

 the direction of the wind varies very often. The struggle 

 for existence Is here very vividly brought before us. How 

 often In the course of centuries must similar meetlngrs have 

 occurred In Africa and In other parts of the world, before 

 I was able to record this observation for the first time ? 

 These pictures are a good Instance of the value of photo- 

 graphy as a means of getting and giving Information in 

 regard to wild life. 



Kllepo Hill will always standout vividly In my memory. 

 Elephants may still climb up to the small still lake shut in 

 by the wall-like hillsides, as they have done for ages, to 

 quench their thirst at Its refreshing waters. For hundreds 



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