378 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Delta and Lower Egypt properly so called. In our days, the crocodile 
begins to make its appearance at or near Assiut, yet we saw none of 
them during our short stay at that city; but, on Dec. 14, on arriving 
within about a quarter of a mile of a sand-bank, which we learned from 
our boatmen was a favourite resort of these reptiles, and which is a 
little beyond Girgeh, between that town and Farshoot, we had the 
great satisfaction of beholding a whole herd, if I may use the term, 
of these river-monsters, emerge one by one from the stream as the sun 
gained power, and assemble on the sand-bank, where we counted no 
less than sixteen of various sizes, huddled together, and evidently 
enjoying the warmth of the bright unclouded morning-ray. The 
smallest of those we saw, as we watched them through our telescopes, 
seemed to be at least eight or nine feet in length; and several were 
absolutely leviathan monsters, as hideous and terrific as can well be 
imagined, not measuring less, certainly, than sixteen or eighteen feet 
long. ‘Their bodies were as thick as that of a horse, and the huge 
jaws of some were gaping wide apart, as they basked listless and 
motionless on the sand, or, occasionally, dragged themselves forth from 
the water, to lie along like huge logs or trunks of Palm-trees, to which 
they bear no inconsiderable general resemblance in the rough scaly 
covering of their unwieldy forms, knotted with crested protuberances. 
We were so near them that, by aid of our telescopes, we could per- 
fectly watch their motions, and discern their minutest characters, 
longing all the while to be amongst them with our guns, and planning 
an attack which we intend making on their stronghold when we return 
down the river. We purpose to throw up a masked battery of sand 
. the day previous, and, landing on the bank before day-break the fol- 
_ lowing morning, to open fire on them from behind our temporary fort 
as they emerge from the river to bask in the sun. We have furnished 
ourselves with balls of hardened lead expressly for the purpose, and 
trust to be able to achieve the feat of shooting a crocodile, and 
carrying off his jaws and his skull as a trophy of our campaign against 
_ the monster deities of Egypt's river. The young specimens of the 
. crocodile of the Nile that are occasionally brought alive to England, 
give no idea whatever of the hideous deformity and ferocious aspect of 
the full-grown animal. A more revolting creature does not exist. Yet 
T believe the crocodile is seldom or ever dangerous to man, being an ex- 
‘tremely watchful and timid animal, deg slowly down and sliding 
