SOUTHERN AFRICA. 191) 



the remarkable g'ait is rendered still more automaton-like^ 

 by the switching-^ at reg-ular intervals^ of the long- black 

 tail_, which is invariably curled above the back, and by the 

 corresponding- action of the neck, swinging- as it does, hke 

 a pendulum, and literally imparting- to the animal the ap- 

 pearance of a piece of machinery in motion. Naturally 

 g-entle, timid, and peaceable, the unfortunate g'irafFe has no 

 means of protecting- itself but with its heels; but even 

 when hemmed into a corner, it seldom resorted to this mode 

 of defence. I have before noticed the courag-e evinced by 

 our horses, in the pursuit of g-ame. Even when broug-ht 

 into actual contact with these almost unearthly quadrupeds, 

 they evinced no symptom of alarm, a circumstance which 

 may possibly be traced to their meagre diet. 



The colossal heig-ht, and apparent disproportions of this 

 extraordinary animal, long- classed it with the unicorn and 

 the sphinx of the ancients, and induced a belief that it 

 belong-ed rather to the g-roup of chimeras with which the 

 reg-ions of imag-ination are tenanted, than existed among-st 

 the actual works of nature. Of its form and habits, no 

 very precise notions were obtained until within the last forty 

 years ; and even now, the extant delineations are far from 

 the truth, having- been taken from crippled prisoners instead 

 of from specimens free in their native deserts. The g-irafFe 

 is by no means a common animal, even at its head quarters. 

 We seldom found them without having- followed the trail, 

 and never saw more than five-and-thirty in a day.* The 

 senses of sig-ht, hearing-, and smelly are acute and delicate; 



* A traveller whom I met in tlie Cape Colony, assured me, before I visited 

 the interior, that he had himself counted eight hundred giraffes in a single 

 day; and during his travels, had ridden down hundreds. On my return, how- 

 ever, after a little cross-examination, the number destroyed dwindled gradually 

 down to 07U ; which solitary individual appeared, upon further investigation, 

 to have been taken in a pit-fall ! 



