xin THE CROCODILE 261 



terrible examples of the ferocity, combined with cunning, which 

 characterises this useless scourge. On one occasion the vessels 

 were sailing up the White Nile with a strong north wind, making 

 at least 7 knots an hour ; one of the cavasses was sitting upon 

 the deck, with his legs dangling over the sides of the deeply laden 

 vesssel, his feet being half a yard above the water. Suddenly a 

 rush was made by a very large crocodile, and the man was seized 

 and carried off in a shorter time than it would take to announce 

 the fact. This was done in the presence of a hundred men on 

 board the vessel, and nothing was ever heard of the unfortunate 

 cavass. 



On another occasion one of the sailors was sitting upon the 

 rudder to wash himself; the vessel was in motion, but he was 

 carried off by a crocodile in sight of his comrades on the deck. 



These attacks prove that the fact of a vessel travelling through 

 the water does not in all cases terrify this horrible reptile, but, on 

 the contrary, it snatches its prey from the vessel itself while in 

 movement. 



I lost so many men by these creatures that I made a point of 

 shooting every crocodile that showed its head above the surface, or 

 that was basking upon the shore. The rifle that I invariably 

 carried was a "577 of extreme precision, and I slaughtered a vast 

 number of these vermin in revenge for their misdeeds. 



On one occasion I killed a crocodile which, although not longer 

 than 12 feet 3 inches, was very thick in the body; this was proved 

 to be a malefactor by the testimony of two bracelets and a neck- 

 lace, belonging to a missing girl, which we found within its 

 stomach. 



Upon opening the stomach and examining the contents we dis- 

 covered upwards of five pounds weight of gravel or pebbles, mixed 

 with a woolly substance and aquatic weeds. The wool was the 

 hair of the girl, and her ornaments were discovered among the 

 gravel. 



The necklace was made of small pieces of wood threaded upon 

 a string ; these wooden beads were partially abraded by the action 

 of the pebbles, which no doubt are swallowed for the purpose of 

 assisting digestion, as fowls and other birds swallow sand and 

 stones for the same object. Nearly every crocodile that I have 

 examined contained a certain amount of coarse gravel within its 

 stomach. This has a peculiar power of contraction and expansion, 

 capable of sustaining great privation when food is scarce, and of 

 accommodating itself to any amount of sudden plenty. 



Among the accidents that occurred to my expedition, one man 



