232 BENIGHTED. [chap. viii. 
along over the open plain. The grass was not more 
than a foot high, and the ground hard;—the giraffes 
about four hundred yards distant steaming along, and 
raising a cloud of dust from the dry earth, as on this 
side of the mountains there had been no rain. Filfil 
was a contradiction; he loved a hunt and had no fear 
of wild animals, but he went mad at the sound of a 
gun. Seeing the magnificent herd of about fifteen 
giraffes before him, the horse entered into the excite¬ 
ment and needed no spur—down a slight hollow, flying 
over the dry buffalo holes, now over a dry watercourse 
and up the incline on the other side—then again on 
the level, and the dust in my eyes from the cloud 
raised by the giraffes showed that we were gaining in 
the race ; miserieordia !—low jungle lay before us—the 
giraffes gained it, and spurring forward through a 
perfect cloud of dust now within a hundred yards of 
the game we shot through the thorny bushes. In 
another minute or two I was close up, and a splendid 
bull giraffe was crashing before me like a locomotive 
obelisk through the mimosas, bending the elastic boughs 
before him in his irresistible rush, which sprang back 
with a force that would have upset both horse and 
rider had I not carefully kept my distance. The jungle 
seemed alive with the crowd of orange red, the herd 
was now on every side, as I pressed the great bull be¬ 
fore me. Oh, for an open plain ! I was helpless to 
attack, and it required the greatest attention to keep 
up the pace through the thick mimosas without dashing 
against their stems and branches. The jungle became 
thicker, and although I was in the middle of the herd 
and within ten yards of several giraffes, I could do 
nothing. A mass of thick and tangled thorns now re¬ 
ceived them, and closed over the hardly contested race 
—I was beaten. 
Never mind, it was a good hunt—first-rate—but 
wTere was my camp ? It was nearly dark, and I could 
just distinguish the pass in the distance, by which we 
had descended the mountain; thus I knew the direction, 
