THE GUASO NYERO 
307 
the sunlight, minding it as little as they did the furnace¬ 
like heat. We found the really dense wait-a-bit thorn 
thickets quite impenetrable, whereas the giraffe moved 
through them with utter unconcern. But the giraffe’s in¬ 
difference to thorns is commonplace compared to its in¬ 
difference to water. These particular giraffe were not 
drinking either at the river or at the one or two streams 
which were running into it; and in certain places giraffe 
will subsist for months without drinking at all. How the 
waste and evaporation of moisture from their huge bodies 
is supplied is one of the riddles of biology. 
We could not get a bull giraffe, and it was only a bull 
that I wanted. I was much interested, however, in coming 
up to a cow asleep. She stood with her neck drooping 
slightly forward, occasionally stamping or twitching an 
ear, like a horse when asleep standing. I saw her legs first, 
through the bushes, and finally walked directly up to her in 
the open, until I stood facing her at thirty yards. When 
she at last suddenly saw me, she came nearer to the execu¬ 
tion of a gambol than any other giraffe I have ever seen. 
Another day we went after buffalo. We left camp be¬ 
fore sunrise, riding along parallel to the river to find the 
spoor of a herd which had drunk and was returning to 
the haunts, away from the river, in which they here habit¬ 
ually spent the day. Two or three hours passed before we 
found what we sought; and we at once began to follow 
the trail. It was in open thorn-bush, and the animals were 
evidently feeding. Before we had followed the spoor half 
an hour we ran across a rhinoceros. As the spoor led above 
wind, and as we did not wish to leave it for fear of losing it, 
Cuninghame stayed where he was, and I moved round to 
