DEAD AT LAST. 205 



but the crocodile had not moved. I fired point- 

 blank into his eye and under the shoulder, not 

 indeed without trembling a little. He was dead 

 at last ; there could be no doubt of it now. In 

 length he measured ten feet, and in circumference 

 round the middle four feet. We abandoned him 

 for the moment, half sunk in water and mud, with 

 his belly turned up to the sun, and off we started 

 for Castroville to procure assistance and announce 

 our exploit. Although crocodiles are not rare in 

 the Medina, they are very seldom killed ; the news 

 created quite a sensation in town, and a waggon 

 set out without delay, accompanied by as gay and 

 uproarious a procession as one can well imagine. 

 The distance was six miles ; and, though killed in 

 the morning, it did not reach our garden until the 

 evening. . . . The cooking of it was a real 

 fete. It is only the fleshy portions of the tail that 

 are eaten. We distributed it liberally. The flesh 

 did not strike me as well flavoured ; it was but 

 too evident that the animal had lain in the mud 

 during the hottest part of the day. There also 

 emanated from it a powerful odour of musk, which 

 destroyed our appetites, and remained in our clothes 

 for more than a week afterwards." 



Here is the Abbe's portrait of An Enthusiastic 

 Naturalist. . . . " He was an old German 

 priest, who officiated in Braunfels and the neigh- 



