CHAP. IX.] SHOOTING GIRAFFES IN THE DUSK. 257 



In a few hours from Eikhams we had emerged from 

 the valley of the Swakop on to the high plateau. 

 Thence we followed the Quieep Kiver easterly : this 

 we left for the Noosop, crossing a broad plain, and 

 having some shooting ; we then followed the Noosop, 

 and game began to appear in abundance. We passed 

 one gTeat herd of springboks that were migrating ; 

 they eat up the grass almost as locusts would on their 

 way. . It was by no means so numerous a herd as is 

 often seen in Bechuana country ; but the tufts of white 

 hair on the backs of the males were as thickly scattered 

 over the country as daisies on a lawn. We never had 

 to kill oxen, — only sheep now and then, for the sake of 

 the fat ; for all the game was very dry ; and where you 

 have no vegetables, fat becomes an essential element 

 of food. 



It was a great drawback to us that elands were 

 hardly ever seen in this country : they are the staple 

 food of sportsmen in Bechuana-land, and are very fat. 



We discovered how to shoot giraffes on foot from 

 Andersson having gone successfully after a herd in 

 the dusk of the evening, when we found that they 

 allowed liim to stalk close up to them. They see very 

 indistinctly in the dark. He shot at two, who did not 

 run far when wounded, but seemed bewildered. He 

 fired all his buUets away at them, and brought one to 

 a stand-still, and the other to a slow walk ; but they 

 would not fall. He could only find one pebble in the 

 sandy soil to fire out of the gun, instead of a bullet, 

 and that seemed to have no efiect upon the animal : 

 he then thought of hamstringing them ; but though he 



