VI 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



213 



many feet in the air. As we were on the march, I could 

 not halt a sufficiently long time to make careful search ; 

 so I failed to get him. 



Just after crossing the Ura, which we did on the 

 third day after reaching its mouth, I saw at a point 

 eighty yards in front of me, and near a scattered 

 clump of mimosa, five giraffes. I stopped the cara- 

 van, for the animals seemed utterly unaware of my 

 approach, and was so fortunate as to kill four of the 

 five with a shot each from my Winchester. These 

 shots were delivered in such rapid succession, that 

 the giraffes seemed puzzled as to the direction from 

 which they came and so made no movement. Each 

 shot was aimed at the neck, which it penetrated, and 

 broke the spine ; so that the animals dropped at 

 once. When a giraffe is facing the sportsman, I 

 think there is no shot so good as one at the neck, 

 for its great length and considerable thickness give a 

 very good line, and so help the aim. 



As we approached the eastern slope of the Jombeni 

 range, we passed millet plantations, on which were 

 erected, in the tops of low trees, many neat little 

 straw huts. These are used as habitations by the 

 warriors of the Daitcho, who are made to perform the 

 double duty of guarding the frontier, and frightening 

 away beasts and birds that would destroy the crops. 

 As soon as the watchmen seated in these huts spied 

 our caravan, they raised a mighty hullabaloo, and ran 

 to warn the villages of the approach of the caravan. 

 I made camp on the eastern slope of an extinct vol- 

 canic cone, covered with waving, green grass. Water 

 was secured at a place but 300 yards distant from 



