288 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



I fired at the diminishing target, and in a second 

 transformed the phlegmatic saurian into a raging 

 monster. In fury, surprise, and pain it lashed the 

 water with its powerful tail, turning and twisting 

 its body until the churned up water hid it from view. 

 I fired my second barrel into the turmoil of spray 

 and water, and the brute plunged below the surface. 

 As soon as it had disappeared from sight, Manap's 

 quick eyes discerned on the mud-flats the track by 

 which the crocodile had just come down to the water. 



" See," he cried, " it has not been basking ; there 

 is its wallow. 



" Have you not seen a crocodile's wallow ? " he 

 asked me as he paddled on with long easy strokes, 

 letting the tide do its full share of the work. " This 

 is how he makes it. When the tide is at its full 

 he comes up over the water-covered bank, and lies 

 down on the mud close by the mangrove - trees. 

 He twists and turns himself in the ooze until he 

 has hollowed out a shallow pit, in which he lies. 

 Then the tide turns to run out, and the mud and 

 silt carried down by the stream settle in the wallow 

 and on the crocodile's back and round his sides, until, 

 by the time that the retreating tide has left the 

 mud -flats bare, a thick layer of mud covers the 

 crocodile, and nothing is seen to break the level 

 expanse of ooze. The crocodile's nostrils and his 

 eyes are, however, just above the level of the mud, 

 though the keenest eye could not detect them. Thus 

 he lies concealed until a family of monkeys comes 

 chattering, playing, and scrambling over the mud to 

 look for crabs or shellfish. 



