CROCODILES 71 



having received the bullet. A shot in the lungs, or one 

 which cuts through the valves of the nostrils, or injures 

 the air passages, is also quite deadly ; for the animal is 

 then unable to remain under water, and will reappear 

 on the surface within a few seconds. I have known 

 crocodiles wounded in some such way climb right out of 

 the water on to sand-banks they had just vacated, and so 

 offer themselves easy targets. 



I remember one, shot in the lungs, make three or four 

 successive rushes to land, dashing back again into the 

 water each time he received a fresh bullet. Another, shot 

 and left for dead on a sand-bank, had disappeared, when, 

 ten minutes later, I returned with some natives to skin 

 him. After a long search we found him about a hundred 

 yards down stream, lying in water some three feet deep. 

 He was unwilling to move, and absolutely refused to 

 show his head above the surface, so, after a consultation 

 the natives volunteered to go in and spear him. At the 

 first thrust he dashed off down stream, through the 

 shallow water, and a most exciting chase ensued. Luckily 

 for us there were no deep pools for some distance, and 

 the natives kept heading him off up stream. He made 

 no attempt to turn upon, or, indeed, to do anything 

 except try to escape from his pursuers. It was marvel- 

 lous with what speed, in spite of a severe wound from an 

 expanding bullet, he dashed about through the shallows ; 

 but eventually he was done to death, and proved to be 

 about eleven feet long. I killed another which had three 

 large spherical bullets embedded in different parts of 

 its body. From the manner in which the tissues had 

 grown up round them, I judged they had been there for 

 a good many years, and there was not the smallest sign 

 of any local disturbance consequent on their presence. 

 There was also in the body a Lee-Metford bullet, 



