e, and although the giraffe lived between two and three years, and
grew eighteen inches in height, she gradually sank and died in the
autumn of 1829, to the great regret of the king. Her body was dissected
by the sergeant-surgeon, Sir Everard Home, and an account thereof
published by him.

Those who frequented the British Museum in the days of Montague-house,
shortly before the present building was erected, will remember a
hairless stuffed giraffe, which stood at the top of the stairs, mounting
sentry, as it were, over the principal door. This miserable skin was
interesting, as being the remains of the first entire specimen recorded.
Its history was as follows: The late Lady Strathmore sent to the Cape,
to collect rare flowers and trees, a botanist of the name of Paterson,
who seems to have penetrated a considerable distance into the
interior--sufficiently far, at least, to have seen a group of six
giraffes. He was so fortunate as to kill one, and brought the skin home
for Lady Strathmore; her ladyship presented it to the celebrated John
Hunter, and it formed part of the Hunterian collection until a
re-arrangement of that museum took place on its removal to the present
noble hall in the College of Surgeons. This stuffed specimen, with many
others of a similar description, was handed over to the British Museum,
and for some years occupied the situation on the landing above
mentioned; being regarded as "rubbish," it was destroyed, and the
"stuffing" used to expand some other skin. There are now, however, two
noble stuffed specimens in the first zoological room of the Museum; one
especially remarkable for its dark-brown spots is no less than eighteen
feet in height. It is from the southern parts of Africa, and was
presented by that veteran zoologist, the Earl of Derby; the other was
one of the giraffes brought by M. Thibaut to the Zoological Gardens.

The Zoological Society having made known its wish to possess living
specimens of the giraffe, the task of procuring them was undertaken by
M. Thibaut, who having had twelve years' experience in African travel,
was well qualified for the arduous pursuit.

M. Thibaut quitted Cairo in April, 1834, and after sailing up the Nile
as far as Wadi Halfa, the second cataract, took camels and proceeded to
Debbat, a province of Dongolah, whence he started for the Desert of
Kordofan. Being perfectly acquainted with the locality and on friendly
terms with the Arabs, he attached them stil