xxix ANIMALS OF THE BACK BLOCKS 297 



one's tent, or even under the fly. Occasionally, cases 

 occur of the taking of native children by hyaenas. 

 They are very powerful, both in jaw and body ; a 

 single hyaena can carry off a donkey, or with one 

 single wrench pull a dead zebra completely round. 

 On the whole, it is decidedly fortunate that they are 

 such arrant cowards. 



Crocodile occur in the Tana, Athi, Thika, and Juba 

 rivers and in Lakes Baringo, Rudolf, and Victoria 

 Nyanza. In the Juba, they have an especially bad 

 reputation, and natives are afraid to approach any part 

 of the river to draw water, except when there is a 

 steep bank. In Lake Baringo, on the other hand, 

 natives paddle about among them with disdain and 

 impunity. Hardly any animal is too large for a 

 crocodile to tackle. Mr. Fleischman, the celebrated 

 American. sportsman, told me how he and two other 

 white witnesses saw a rhinoceros in the Jana river 

 apparently held by the leg, and which eventually, in 

 spite of the most frantic struggles, disappeared. It is 

 difficult to conceive of any other explanation save that 

 a crocodile had seized his foot, and, having curled its 

 tail round a rock, had, with assistance, eventually pulled 

 him in. The only objection to this conclusion seems to 

 lie in the question why, if they can capture a rhinoceros, 

 crocodiles do not equally batten on the hippopotamus 

 which share their haunts. The length of crocodiles is 

 frequently discussed, and people talk glibly of crocodiles 

 of 25 feet. I know of no authenticated instance in 

 Africa of a crocodile exceeding 16 feet. If a larger 

 one exists he probably exists beneath the Merchiston 

 Falls, where crocodiles lie in almost incredible 

 numbers. 



