302 
THE GUASO NYERO 
[CH. XI 
the trees and bushes were leafless ; but instead of leaves 
they almost all carried thorns, the worst being those of 
the wait-a-bit, which tore our clothes, hands, and faces. 
We found the giraffe three or four miles away from the 
river, in an absolutely waterless region, densely covered 
with these leafless wait-a-bit thorn bushes. Hanging 
among the bare bushes, by the way, we roused two or 
three of the queer, diurnal, golden-winged, slate-coloured 
bats ; they flew freely in the glare of 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 
indifference to water. These particular giraffes 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 execution of a gambol 
than any other giraffe I have ever seen. 
Another day we went after buffalo. We left camp 
before 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 
