I
therefore determined to make a great circuit of about five miles,
and thus to approach them from above, with the advantage of the
broken ground for stalking. It was the perfection of uneven
country: by clambering broken cliff, wading shoulder-deep through
muddy gullies, sliding down the steep ravines, and winding
through narrow bottoms of high grass and mimosas for about two
hours, during which we disturbed many superb nellut (Ant.
strepsiceros) and tetel (Ant. Bubalis), we at length arrived at
the point of the high table land upon the verge of which I had
first noticed the giraffes with the telescope. Almost immediately
I distinguished the tall neck of one of these splendid animals
about half a mile distant upon my left, a little below the table
land; it was feeding on the bushes, and I quickly discovered
several others near the leader of the herd. I was not far enough
advanced in the circuit that I had intended to bring me exactly
above them, therefore I turned sharp to my right, intending to
make a short half circle, and to arrive on the leeward side of
the herd, as I was now to windward: this I fortunately completed,
but I had marked a thick bush as my point of cover, and upon
arrival I found that the herd had fed down wind, and that I was
within two hundred yards of the great bull sentinel that, having
moved from his former position, was now standing directly before
me.
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