504 Great and Small Game of Africa 



country. They penetrate even into the waterless deserts after the 

 periodical rains ; and, by using the scant pools, or even by existing, at a 

 pinch, upon the wild, bitter water-melons which often grow very 

 luxuriantly throughout the desert, they are enabled, by the use of horses, 

 to pursue and slay large numbers of giraffe and eland in the very heart of 

 the Kalahari Thirstland itself. 



The value of the hide of a full-grown giraffe is from £4 to £6, the 

 skin being largely employed for making native sandals and colonial whips, 

 known universally in South Africa as sjamboks. There is a constant com- 

 mercial demand for these hides. As a consequence, Boer and native 

 hunters are to be found shooting giraffes in large numbers, and, for the 

 miserable value of their skins, these noble and unique creatures are, year 

 by year, and month by month, persecuted and pursued until they threaten, 

 at no very distant period, to become extinct south of the Zambesi. It is 

 true that game laws are supposed to be in force in most countries of South 

 Africa. But in the far wilderness it is impossible to enforce these laws, 

 and the shooting of rare game goes on, in too many instances, quite 

 unchecked. Seven or eight years ago the number of giraffes slain during 

 two seasons by native hunters round Lake Ngami, a famous headquarter of 

 these tall beasts, amounted to more than 300 head of those animals. This, 

 of course, was but a small percentage of the giraffe destruction going 

 forward simultaneously south of the Zambesi. For the benefit of those 

 British hunters who shoot purely for the love of sport, or to procure 

 specimens, or to obtain in a husband-like manner a necessary food-supply 

 for their servants and native hunters, the following remarks on South African 

 giraffe hunting, culled from the writer's own experience, may be useful. 



The sportsman will, of course, have provided himself with two or 

 three good hunting ponies, which can be procured at Kimberley, in 

 British Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Orange Free State, or elsewhere, at 

 the price of from £15 to £20 apiece. A " salted" horse will, of course, 



