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 Barotse 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- 

 sippi, 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 other's 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 efforts 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 



