The mock-awkwardness of �the �sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt� nevertheless does not inhibit an expression of vast featureless horizons; and is neatly contrasted, in a string of adjectives so often resorted to by young writers, in the evocative description of: A great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all �sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. But more to the point is the crescendo of similes which in this tale begins to impress itself on the mind: they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smoke-house � You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle � � you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals. Finally, the series modulates from the grotesque into the pleasing, a natural object in a natural setting: � if you insist on looking like a sunflower against a tarred fence. Since the first three are, as it were, asterisked for attention with �this dark place� and, once interest is gained, the last is allowed to make its own point, it is difficult not to believe that a lesson is being inculcated, with whatever charming playfulness [p. 25].
When Allen compared the markings across the cat family tree, he found that similar patterns emerged quickly and several times during feline evolution. Some cats appear to have markings that are not suited to their natural stalking grounds. The cheetah, for example, has a distinctive spotted coat but lives in the sparse deserts of sub-Saharan Africa. But the animal's impressive athleticism means it can reach more than 60 miles per hour in three seconds, and so it may rely less on camouflage than other cats.