264 



GIRAFFE HUNTING. 



h " 



.1 



f! i 



creature was doubtless suffering by giving it the 

 second barrel through the head, which instantly 

 extinguished life. I had had a glorious gallop, a 

 successful run, and effected my purpose without giving 

 unnecessary pain ; but, after all, I doubt very much 

 that I felt quite clear of those admonishing qualms of 

 conscience that whispered to me a reproach for the 

 part I had taken in depriving such a beautiful creature 

 of life. 



For a long time I sat by and gazed upon this 

 splendid beast. Although not the first of the race 

 that 1 had killed, this unquestionably was the finest, 

 both as far as size (for a cow), condition, darkness, and 

 evenness of markings of the hide ; in fact, it was a 

 perfect beast in every respect. 



The space traversed before running into this 

 giraffe I made to be quite a mile and a half; at the 

 rate of speed that my horse went, and the time it 

 took me to overhaul the game, I should say that its 

 pace was about a mile in two minutes and a few 

 seconds, about the time that the fastest American 

 trotter can cover the same distance. However, it 

 ought to be remembered that the terrain traversed 

 was very much less suited for speed than an artifi- 

 cially made trotting track. 



It will be seen from the above narration that 

 the giraffe cannot be considered a very fast animal ; 

 still it takes a good colonial horse as much as it can 

 do (with such a start as mentioned) to overtake it. 

 Moreover, my horse was " salted '^ — that is, had gone 

 through the horse sickness ; and I feel convinced that 

 that experience has a tendency to lessen their speed. 

 However, this is a matter of opinion. Again, I think 

 that if 1 had had to go half a mile further, I should 

 never have got within such short shooting range, for 

 if the game I write of be not forced beyond its pace, 

 figuratively it can go for ever. Further, when the 

 ground is rou^^h and irregular, trees numer<jus and 



