With Flashlight and Rifle * 



The great rounded mass of flesh lay motionless upon 

 the sand-bank. The dark stream must have carried down 

 some particles of the animal's blood, for soon I saw a 

 crocodile's snout pop up, then several others, above the 

 smooth surface lower down where the water was deeper, 

 and then disappear again. 



In a surprisingly short time a large crocodile, more 

 than four yards in length, came into sight, gave a look 

 round, disappeared again in the water, and then scrambled 

 up alongside the body of the hippopotamus. The danger- 

 ous-looking beast coming right out of the rushing stream 

 presented a sinister sight. But now I involuntarily took 

 a step back as I saw his terrible jaws open wide and 

 begin to tear eagerly at the hippopotamus's flesh. 



I kept myself hidden, however, and was thus enabled 

 to witness the wonderful spectacle of more than twenty 

 crocodiles, all nearly the same size, emerging from the 

 water a few yards away from me and begin tugging 

 the hippopotamus this way and that. They could not 

 bite through the hard impenetrable skin. They got away 

 an ear and part of the snout arid the tail that was 

 all. Not until putrefaction began to set in, as it does so 

 astonishingly quickly in the tropics, did their bites begin 

 to take effect. 



These huge brutes, fighting and tumbling over each 

 other in their lust for the prey, were a sight not easily 

 to be forgotten. But they were gradually dragging the 

 hippopotamus down, and 1 began to fear it might be 

 swept away by the stream, and thus be lost to me. 

 There is no^object in shooting hippopotamuses in a big 



274 



