HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



occupants of one boat would greet those of the other 

 with yells of delight. One boy on the other boat had a 

 mouth organ, and they had evidently been having a 

 very good time. There he sat just by the mast playing 

 the instrument for all he was worth. Perspiration poured 

 off him as he swayed and stamped in time to the music 

 — if such it could be called — one eye on a mule standing 

 almost on top of him, with the other he was taking in 

 the whole scene. The rest of the occupants flocked to 

 one side to see our boat as they drew near. The musician 

 stuck to his post, and continued to play with increased 

 vigour. The sails on both boats were partially filled 

 with the breeze and, together with the oars, both craft 

 were doing a steady five knots. As we neared the island, 

 which was about half a mile long and a quarter broad, I 

 espied a crocodile on the sandy beach and got out the 



Westley Richards -450 and roused P . Taking careful 



aim I fired, but only succeeded in wounding the brute, 

 which lay flapping about the beach, endeavouring to 

 make for the water, which it managed to reach almost at 

 the same moment that I let go with the left barrel. At 

 this it turned over on its back and remained motionless 

 in the shallow water. I was all excitement to get at it, 

 but the boatmen pointed out the impossibility of doing 

 so without running a great risk. As the water was quite 

 shallow it would be out of the question to try to reach 

 the beach with the boat at that point, so we left the 

 carcase, intending to get it later on returning by terra 

 firma. After landing on the shore, however, we had 

 such sport shooting others, that it was only just before 

 sundown that we remembered about it. Four boys were 

 sent out, but they returned to say that the brute had 

 vanished leaving only a thin trail of blood on the sand. 

 Apparently others had dragged it off. We had only 

 been using some old black powder ammunition that we 

 kept for practice work, which of course lacked the 



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