T22 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



avail himself of it, for a bullet placed there is im- 

 mediately fatal. However, such shots can only be 

 made at close range and when the animal is not in 

 motion, for this is an extremely small mark to 

 shoot at. 



Having noticed immense numbers of aquatic 

 birds flying south-west, I thought I would explore 

 in that direction. The reward was to discover a 

 large lagoon, or backwater, apparently very shoal 

 and shut in on all sides by a deep fringe of lofty 

 reeds. On bare banks of mud and sand rested nu- 

 merous giant crocodiles, while even almost among 

 them, far as the eye could reach in any direction, 

 were thousands of waterfowl. It was a scene that 

 once witnessed would ever after remain engraved 

 upon the sportsman's or naturalist's memory. As 

 long as I did not approach closer than five-and- 

 twenty yards of the birds, they paid but little 

 attention to me. Obviously they were quite 

 unacquainted with the destruction firearms could 

 deal among them. To see the result that a report 

 from a discharge would produce, I emptied a 

 barrel into a crocodile. The consequences were 

 wonderful, for thousands of wings took flight at the 

 same instant, producing a roar like thunder, and in 

 a few moments after the air was filled with innumer- 

 able figures, sailing round and round on silent, wide- 

 stretched pinions, the predominant clothing of all 

 being the purest snow white. The poetically inclined 



