OZ CROCODILE ISLAND. 



it would be easier for us to elude the satiated monsters ; but ere 

 we had got half way across the lake, I perceived we were pursued 

 by two of an unusual size. From these escape by flight was 

 impossible. They rapidly gained upon us, and at last one of 

 them, raising himself out of the water, was just preparing to lay 

 his paw upon the canoe, when I discharged an anow which 

 luckily pierced his eye. With a roar of mingled rage and pain, 

 he sank below the water, and left me to prepare for the assault 

 of his companion. With a tremendous cry, he came up, and 

 darted as swift as an arrow under my boat, emerging upright on 

 my lee-quarter, with open jaws, and belching water and smoke, 

 that fell upon me like rain in a hurricane. Leaving the bow to 

 the skilful Nemrooma, I seized my club, and beat him about the 

 head, and kept him for a few minutes at a distance. I savy, 

 however, he was making preparations for his final spring, his 

 mouth was opened to a fearful width, when an arrow struck him 

 directly on the tongue, and pinned it to his jaw. He shouted as 

 he felt the pain, and darted off*, no doubt, in quest of assistance. 

 I shot to the bank with the speed of lightning, lifted the almost 

 fainting Nemrooma from the canoe, and led her to the foot of an 

 immense magnolia, which I perceived at no great distance. Be- 

 fore we left the river, however, we saw a prodigious number of 

 crocodiles gathered round the boat, and one of them even crawled 

 into it, and we heard our last hope of safety take its leave in the 

 crash of its breaking sides, as it crumbled into fragments beneath 

 the unwieldy monster's weight. The shore, I was aware, was 

 also the resort of incredible multitudes of bears. Our provisions 

 were exhausted, our arrows left in the canoe, and we could see 

 no possibility of avoiding an excruciating death.'* The narrator 

 here stopt for a moment, and the traveller, breathless with interest, 

 said to him, " For God's sake, tell me, sir, how you got safe off? " 



Whilst the stranger prepared to reply, I took advantage of the 

 pause to look round the room. The supper table was deserted. 

 The passengers had all paid their reckoning, and the waiter was 

 standing expectingly at the corner of the sideboard. 



" How we got safe off'? " replied the Indian king; "that's just 

 the thing that puzzles me, and I thought you might perhaps be 

 able to assist me." 



" I assist you ! " said the traveller, " how is that possible ? " 



" Coach is quite ready, sir," interrupted the waiter. 



" The fact is," rejoined the young man, " I have just got to that 

 point, in a tale I am writing for next month's Blackwood, and 



