330 
TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 
This bull was a fine specimen, coloured almost exactly 
like the giraffes of the Athi and Sotik, but with much 
more horn development. I doubt whether this five¬ 
horned kind is more than a local race. The bulls have 
been described as very dark ; but the one thus shot, a 
big and old master bull, was unusually light, and in the 
herd there were individuals of every shade, much the 
darkest being a rather small cow. Indeed, in none of 
the varieties of giraffe did we find that the old bulls 
were markedly darker than the others ; many of them 
were dark, but some of the biggest w^ere light-coloured, 
and the darkest individuals in a herd were often cows. 
Giraffes, by the way, do sometimes lie down to sleep, 
but not often. 1 
In order that Heller might take care of the giraffe 
skin we had to spend a couple of days where we were 
then camped. The tents were pitched near a spring of 
good water, beside a slight valley in which there were 
marshy spots and reed beds. The country was rolling, 
and covered with fine grass, unfortunately so tall as to 
afford secure cover for lions. There were stretches bare 
of trees, and other stretches with a sparse, scattered 
growth of low thorns or of the big glossy-leaved bush 
which I have spoken of as the African jessamine because 
of the singularly sweet and jessamine-like fragrance of 
1 This is just one of the points as to which no one observer 
should dogmatize or try to lay down general laws with no excep¬ 
tions. Moreover, the personal equation of even the most honest 
observer must always be taken into account in considering not 
merely matters like this, but even such things as measurements. 
For example, Neuman, in his “ Elephant Hunting , 11 gives measure¬ 
ments of the height of both elephants and Grevy's zebra. Our 
measurements made the elephants taller and the big zebras less tall 
than he found them. Measurements of the lengths of lions made 
by different observers are for this reason rarely of much value for 
purposes of comparison. 
