BRITISH EAST AFRICA 191 



(Waller's gazelle), Elmi sighted a fine bull giraffe 

 feeding on the topmost branches of a giant 

 acacia tree. There was little cover, and I had 

 therefore to take a long shot — about 230 yards. 

 By a great piece of luck for me and ill-fortune 

 for the giraffe, my first bullet smashed his shoulder. 

 It was a wonderful sight to see this great animal, 

 standing about 17 feet 4 inches high, sway and 

 topple to the ground. I was overjoyed at my 

 good fortune, and yet as the magnificent creature 

 fell and I realized that the murderous little bullet 

 had done its work, I felt a pang of pity and remorse. 

 It was indeed a study in destructive mania — 

 such a scene as the Plutonic gods must shudder 

 over when they have demolished a fair city with 

 one quake of the earth. 



The giraffes of northern British East Africa 

 are of the reticulated variety. White markings 

 form a network on a reddish-liver-coloured back- 

 ground, ip contradistinction to the sporadic 

 dark brown blotches on a lighter-coloured skin 

 in the southern varieties. 



As the red globe of the dying sun sank over 

 the western tree-tops that evening I saw half-a- 

 dozen giraffes, no doubt companions of my fallen 

 quarry, gallop off with ungainly strides into the 

 gloaming. The fiery sheen of the sun seemed 

 to swathe them in a crimson forest of flame. Tails 

 swishing, they ambled away, necks and bodies 

 swaying like grotesque rocking-horses. They 

 raised a cloud of desert dust and sand, and trees 

 and night quickly swallowed them up. 



Close to the spot where I shot the bull I saw 

 no less than thirty-six giraffes two days after- 

 wards. It was a wonderful sight — a scene which 

 can scarcely survive this generation of progress 

 and reclamation of the world's wastes and deserts. 



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