62 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



corpse is invariably dragged off even from the very 

 gates of a kraal before the first night is many hours 

 old. 



About the 20th of December, Mandy, Dorehill, 

 and I, as well as the Hottentots, broke up our camp 

 and started southward for the Matabele country, 

 leaving George Wood still encamped at Se-whoi- 

 whoi. On reaching Gwenia we found that the Boers 

 had already trekked out. Here occurred rather a 

 curious incident. We were strolling along the river 

 in the evening, looking tor francolins, when my dog 

 Bill, as he ran along the water's edge, was seized from 

 behind by a smallish crocodile, and pulled under 

 water. The river just here was not more than two 

 yards broad, but deep, and running at the bottom of 

 a steep, high bank. Seeing what had happened, I 

 at once jumped down the bank and stood close to 

 the water ; the next instant poor Bill's head came 

 above the surface, only to be dragged again out of 

 sight. Seeing the white belly of the crocodile as he 

 turned with the dog apparently only just underwater, 

 I fired both barrels at him, thinking the report alone 

 would make him loose his hold ; but it didn't. 

 After a few seconds the poor dog's jaws again re- 

 appeared. Reaching out the gun by the barrels, I 

 put the stock near his mouth, and he immediately 

 seized upon it and held on with the grip of a drown- 

 ing creature (the stock of this gun bears the teeth- 

 marks to this day). I then got hold of the dog's 

 ears, and pulling with all my strength, got the 

 crocodile — the creature still holding fast to the dog's 

 hind-quarters — out of the water to beyond the eyes. 

 Dorehill, who was standing just above, on the top 

 of the bank, then fired into the reptile's head with a 

 charge of shot, when he at once let go and we saw 



