An upright giraffe, by analogy with humans, ought to suffer massive oedema in its feet; moreover, when it lowers its head to drink, the blood should rush down into it and be unable to flow up again. New pressure measurements reported on page 59 of this issue by Hargens et al. Show why neither of these things happens, and also contain some surprising observations of highly variable venous pressure (P.) in the leg and of a counter-gravitational gradient of P.