4oo TRAVELS IN 
who affert fo really fee the animal, or, if they 
faw it, did they confider it attentively ? 
An Italian author, who certainly never faw 
it, caufed a figure of it to be engraved at Ve- 
nice, in a work entitled Defcrizionl degU ani^ 
tnali^ ^771- This figure is formed exaftly 
from the defcriptions which had then been 
publifhed of the animal; but this exadnefs 
renders it fo ridiculous, that we muft confider 
it, on the part of the Italian author, as a fe- 
vere criticifm on all the accounts which had 
appeared, and which have been fo often re- 
peated. 
Of all the old authors * who have fpoken of 
this animal, the moft exa£t is Gilius, who fays 
exprefsly that " the giraffe has its four legs of 
the fame length ; but that the fore thighs are 
" fo long in comparifon of thofe behind, that 
*' the back of the animal appears inclined like 
* the roof of a houfe." If by the fore thighs 
Gilius means the omoplate or fhoulder blade, 
his affertion is juft, and I perfedtly agree with 
him. 
* Among the moderns, the moft exa6l engraving is 
without doubt that which was executed under the infpec- 
tion of Dr. Allaman, from drawings furnilhed by Colonel 
Gordon. 
The 
