In Wildest Africa ^ 



One may spend days and weeks on the velt trying 

 to get near giraffes without result. Far away on the 

 horizon you descry the gigantic " Twigga " — as the 

 Waswahili call it — but every attempt to approach is in 

 vain. Then, all of a sudden it may happen — as it did once 

 to me near the Western Njiri marshes, Nov. 29, 1898— that 

 a herd of giraffes passes quite near you without fear. On 

 the occasion in question, as is so often the case, 1 had 

 not my photographic apparatus at hand. I could have got 

 some excellent pictures with quite an ordinary camera. 

 The giraffes came towards me until within sixty paces. 

 They then suddenly took wildly to flight. The little herd 

 consisted of nine head : an old very dark-spotted bull, a 

 light-spotted cow, three younger cows with a calf each, and 

 finally a young dark-spotted bull. Orgeich and I had been 

 able to observe the animals quietly as they stood, as if 

 rooted to the spot, with their long necks craned forward, 

 their eyes fixed upon us.^ I cannot explain why the 

 animals were so fearless on that occasion. It was a most 

 unusual occurrence, for ordinarily giraffes manage to give 

 the sportsman a wide berth. 



Again, it may happen, especially about midday, that the 

 hunter will sight a single giraffe or a whole herd at no 

 very great distance. At these times, if one is endowed with 

 good lungs and is in training, one may get close enough to 

 the creatures before they take to flight. 



^ Some years earlier one of our best zoologists, after a long stay in the 

 Masai uplands, had described the giraffes as " rare and almost extinct " : 

 a striking proof of the great difficulty there is in coming upon these 

 animals. 



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