nt I
distinctly perceived that singular form of which the apparition had
ofttimes visited my slumbers, but upon whose reality I now gazed for the
first time. Gliding rapidly among the trees, above the topmost branches,
of many of which its graceful head nodded like some lofty pine, all
doubt was in another moment at an end--it was the stately, the
long-sought giraffe, and, putting spurs to my horse, and directing the
Hottentots to follow, I presently found myself half-choked with
excitement, rattling at the heels of an animal which, to me, had been a
stranger even in its captive state, and which, thus to meet free on its
native plains, has fallen to the lot of but few of the votaries of the
chase; sailing before me with incredible velocity, his long swan-like
neck, keeping time to the eccentric motion of his stilt-like legs--his
ample black tail curled above his back, and whisking in ludicrous
concert with the rocking of his disproportioned frame--he glided
gallantly along 'like some tall ship upon the ocean's bosom,' and seemed
to leave whole leagues behind him at each stride. The ground was of the
most treacherous description; a rotten, black soil, overgrown with long,
coarse grass, which concealed from view innumerable gaping fissures that
momentarily threatened to bring down my horse. For the first five
minutes, I rather lost than gained ground, and, despairing over such a
country of ever diminishing the distance, or improving my acquaintance
with this ogre in seven-league boots, I dismounted, and the mottled
carcase presenting a fair and inviting mark, I had the satisfaction of
hearing two balls tell roundly upon his plank-like stern. But as well
might I have fired at a wall; he neither swerved from his course nor
slackened his pace, and pushed on so far ahead during the time I was
reloading, that, after remounting, I had some difficulty in even keeping
sight of him among the trees. Closing again, however, I repeated the
dose on the other quarter, and spurred my horse along, ever and anon
sinking to his fetlock--the giraffe now flagging at each stride--until,
as I was coming up hand-over-hand, and success seemed certain, the cup
was suddenly dashed from my lips, and down I came headlong--my horse
having fallen into a pit, and lodged me close to an ostrich's nest, near
which two of the old birds were sitting. Happily, there were no bones
broken, but the violence of the shock had caused the lashings of my
previously-b