The Giraffe 505 



cost much more — say from £50 to /J100; but for ordinary purposes 

 unsalted ponies will do very well in the dry, healthy season between May 

 and October. The hunter should never leave his waggon without a full 

 water-bottle, a box of matches, and a compass, and it is advisable — to make 

 sure of his mount — to have a light cord, or hide riem, connecting his belt 

 with the cheek-ring of his pony's bit. These precautions are necessary in 

 the dry and desert giraffe country of, say, the North Kalahari, where to be 

 lost on foot is a most serious matter. The spooring operations are con- 

 ducted by native hunters, who are glad enough to find game for the white 

 man. If the hunting grounds lie, as they often do, at two or three days' 

 distance from the waggon, it is most useful to take in a water-cart (a barrel 

 mounted on wheels), from which the horses can be sparingly supplied. 

 The spoor of the giraffe, when found, will probably lead through thin, 

 park-like forest country of giraffe-acacia or mopani, too often well bushed 

 with dense thorny jungles. Nowadays, giraffe will usually be found in 

 troops of from seven to fourteen, though occasionally eighteen or twenty 

 may be encountered. In the farthest recesses of the Kalahari — if the 

 hunter can penetrate so far — seventy or eighty may occasionally be seen 

 during the day, according to the reports of the Masarwa bushmen. 

 Personally the writer has never come across spoor of more than six-and- 

 twenty during the day, including a magnificent troop of nineteen found and 

 successfully hunted. 



The spectacle of a troop of wild giraffe is certainly one of the most 

 wonderful things in nature. The uncommon shape, the great height, the 

 long, slouching stride, the slender necks, reaching hither and thither 

 among the spreading leafage of the camel-thorn trees, the rich colouring 

 of the animals — all these things combine to render the first meeting with 

 giraffes in their native haunts one of the most striking and memorable of 

 experiences. As the tall giants usually run, when pursued, into the 

 thorniest and densest jungle they can find, the hunter will be well advised 



