136 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
away from the side which he occupies. Sometimes, on the other 
hand, it precipitates itself with surprising agility towards the person 
it has discovered, which may be noticed from the disturbance 
caused on the surface of the water. An antelope which is being 
hunted and takes to the water, in the lagunes of the Barotsé valley, 
a man or a dog who goes there to seek for game, will scarcely fail 
to be seized by a crocodile, of whose presence he has not the 
slightest suspicion. It often happens that, after having danced in 
the moonlight, the young natives of the river’s bank will plunge 
into the water in order to refresh themselves, when, being seized 
by an alligator, they perish.” 
[This mode of attack (striking with the tail) is also one of the 
methods adopted by the Alligator of America for disabling its . 
prey. A friend, on whose veracity I have much dependence, while 
shooting wild fowl on one of the tributaries of the Lower Missis- 
sippl, had the fortune to witness a fight between a bear and an 
alligator. He was called to the scene of the struggle by the 
noise made by the combatants in the dry cane, that yielded to 
their pressure as they fought in each others embrace. Several 
times both ceased, only to recover breath and fresh energy; at 
length the alligator missed striking the foe with its tail, Bruin 
seized the opportunity, and with all his eftorts succeeded in turning 
the amphibian on its back, where he held him for some minutes, at 
the same time gnawing one of its fore-shoulders. A final struggle 
of the now-worsted alligator hurled both into the water, where 
they disappeared, the disturbed surface telling of the dreadful 
contest that was being prolonged beneath ; after the lapse of over 
a minute the bear came up, evidently much fatigued, and swam 
ashore, my friend forbearing to wound, or possibly kill, the gallant 
conqueror. | 
Crocodiles, it is said, which have never eaten human flesh, are 
much less dangerous than those that have acquired a taste for 
it. Mr. Combes states that he was assured by an inhabitant of 
Khartoum, who had reached the town with the Egyptian troops— 
that is to say, before the horrors committed by the Desterdar, acting 
with Mehemet Bey, who had been Governor of the Soudan some 
time before Mr. Combes’ voyage—that the Crocodiles appeared to 
be quite indifferent to human flesh; but after the many executions 
by drowning ordered by Mehemet Bey, as he was told by a native 
whom he interrogated—“ since the Nile has been loaded with the 
carcases of my brethren, the monsters which inhabit it have 
become habituated to substantial food, which they scarcely knew 
