THE ALBERT NYANZA 



penetration and smashing power of cordite. Crocodiles 

 abounded, the water was alive with them. We got 

 behind two small bushes, when presently up came the 

 snouts of half a dozen or so, floating idly on the surface 

 of the water. Both guns rang out, and only a dull 

 reddish tinge was to be seen on the expanding circles of 

 water. After a few minutes another emerged from the 

 water and sank its belly into the hot sand on the beach. 

 Bang ! bang ! in the still air over the Nile, the brute 

 was sent reeling, its tail lashing the sand which rose in 

 a cloud, the huge jaws snapping furiously. When its 

 frantic struggles subsided we closed in on it. The boy 

 got a stout branch and prepared to thrust it into the 

 huge mouth, but there was no need for this as one bullet 

 had entered just behind the eye, and the other found 

 its billet behind the shoulder. The measurement was 

 a little over nine feet six. Shortly afterwards we had 

 two more. Lying down on the sand we potted at the 

 numerous snouts that appeared all over the water. We 

 succeeded in killing five that afternoon on the beach 

 alone, besides others that disappeared in mid-stream, 

 whose bodies it was impossible to recover before night- 

 fall when the density of the water increases as the tem- 

 perature falls, and the carcases rise again to the surface. 

 At sunset dark clouds loomed up in the south-west. 

 We did not erect the tents as the Swahili skipper was 

 desirous of getting under way by four in the morning. 

 After dinner, a smoke and chat, we turned in to sleep 

 with our blankets rolled round us under the mosquito 

 nets in the stern of the boat. We were lying alongside 

 the beach with some bushes overhanging the awning. 

 In the middle of the night I was awakened by a terrific 

 clap of thunder overhead, it rumbled away over the 

 waters reverberating among the mountains in the west. 

 A strong wind had sprung up and the rain was pouring 

 down. Lightning, the like of which one sees only in 



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