THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
is in immediate danger of extinction. From the Limpopo northwards, 
in many districts of Western Matabeleland, throughout most of the 
Bechuanaland Protectorate, the Northern Kalahari, and from thence to the 
Province of Angola, giraffes are still to be found in fair numbers. North 
of the Equator the outlook is more hopeful still, for there are yet immense 
areas of country, from Somaliland to Senegambia, as well as in British 
and German East Africa, where giraffes are to-day excessively plentiful, 
and as in most of these areas they are protected from indiscriminate 
slaughter, there is no reason why they should not survive for a very long 
time to come. Few animals will be less affected by the advance of European 
settlement in Africa than giraffes, as, although they may be found in 
certain well -watered districts, they are more often met with in semi- 
desert tracts, where no European settlement can ever take place, and in 
which only a very sparse native population can live. 
Although giraffes are occasionally killed by lions, they cannot be said to 
suffer very much from the attacks of these carnivora. One reason for this 
comparative immunity is doubtless their great size and strength, which 
must make them awkward animals for lions to kill; but, in addition to 
this, giraffes are often very abundant in semi-desert areas, such as the 
Kalahari regions of South-West Africa, into which during the dry season 
lions are not able to penetrate owing to want of water. They themselves 
are believed by most hunters to be able to exist for months together 
without drinking. This may be so, and, at any rate, it is certain that they 
are found at the driest and hottest times of the year in countries where water 
is entirely absent. It is conceivable, however, that whilst they are capable 
of going for many days without drinking, every herd may make periodical 
visits to some permanent water during the continuance of the dry season. 
When hunting on the Chobi in the early seventies of the last century, 
although I always found giraffes and elands plentiful in the desert country 
to the south of that river, yet herds of both species constantly came at 
night to drink in the river throughout the hot dry weather which precedes 
the rains, and later in the season, when all the valleys and hollows in the 
ground held water, it was a common sight to see giraffes drinking. Owing 
to the great length of their forelegs, it is not an easy matter for these 
animals to get their mouths down to the level of the ground, and, in order to 
drink, they are obliged to straddle their forelegs wide apart, which they do 
by a series of little jerks. Giraffes have seldom been heard to make any sound, 
and many people believe that they are physically incapable of doing so. My 
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