Chap. IV.] CROCODILES. 467 



creature cannot gnaw asunder as he would a solid rope, 

 since they sink into the spaces between liis teeth. The 

 one taken was small, being only about ten or eleven 

 feet in length, whereas they are frequently killed fi'om 

 fifteen to nineteen feet long. As long as he was in the 

 water, he made strong resistance to being hauled on 

 shore, carrying the canoe out into the deep channel, 

 and occasionally raising his head above the water, and 

 clashing his jaws together menacingly. This action 

 has a horrid sound, as the crocodile has no fleshy Hps, 

 and he brings his teeth and the bones of his mouth 

 together with a loud crash, hke the clank of two pieces 

 of hard wood. After pla}dng him a little, the boatmen 

 drew him to land, and when once fairly on the sliore 

 all his courage and energy seemed suddenly to desert 

 him. He tried once or twice to regain the water, but 

 at last lay motionless and perfectly helpless on the sand. 

 It was no easy matter to kill him ; a rifle ball sent 

 diagonally through his breast had httle or no eflect, 

 and even when the shot had been repeated more than 

 once, he was as hvely as ever. He feigned death and 

 lay motionless, with his eyes closed, but, on being 

 pricked with a spear, he suddenly regained all his 

 activity. He was at last finished by a harpoon and 

 then opened. His maw contained several small tor- 

 toises, and a quantity of broken bricks and gra^'el, 

 taken medicinally, to promote digestion, which in these 

 creatures is said to be so slow, that the natives assert 

 that the crocodile, fix)m choice, never swallows his prey 

 when fresh, but conceals it under a bank till far advanced 

 in putrefaction. 



During our journeys we had numerous opportimities 

 of observing the habits of these hideous creatures, and 

 I am far from considering; them so formidable as is 

 usually supposed. They are evidently not wantonly de- 

 structive ; they act only under the influence of hunger, 

 and even then their motions on land are awkward nud 

 ungainly, their action timid, and their whole demeanour 



II H 2 



