80 SPORT BY THE RIVER 300 yards still separated us when he quickly erected his legs to the perpendicular, stared an instant, and with a mate went off in the queer lurching fashion caused by both legs on the same side being advanced together.

The hide is esteemed by the natives for making sandals ; and part of the bone of the front-legs, almost ivory-like in appearance, is sharpened and employed by one tribe—1 believe the Anuaks, on the Sobat—as a spear-head. But to the European it would seem a tragedy to lay this beautiful creature low, harmless as it is, and doomed to extinction except under laws of strict preservation.

It was some days later that, undesirous of killing, I expressed my desire to photograph one from close quarters. At Beit-el-Wahash the opportunity arose. An uninteresting walk with little incident had nearly come to a close, when the word " Zeraf " was whispered.

Rifle was left behind, and the camera substituted. Every bush, tussock of grass, and undulation, was taken advantage of, and still the great fellow unconcernedly plucked the tree-tops. Ibrahim stayed behind one bush while I crawled forward on my stomach under cover of another. Arriving within 40 yards of the great bull, standing broadside on, he presented so enormous an appearance that I wondered if the picture would actually include the whole animal. I was surprised also at the vividness of his colouring against the thin grey trunks of the trees, for so nmch has been said of the value of his