8o ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



dangling his toes in the water, when he suddenly screamed 

 out " Croc's got me ! " and disappeared. Thinking that 

 it was but a repetition of the well-worn jest, the others 

 merely laughed at what they thought was an unusually 

 realistic piece of acting, when, to their horror, they caught 

 sight of his arm protruding from the water some way 

 down stream. With great promptness and pluck, two 

 men sprang in, swam to the spot, and actually succeeded 

 in bringing their companion ashore out of the very jaws 

 of the monster, which was, perhaps, scared away by shots 

 fired from the bank. The man was already dead, how- 

 ever. 



Not long afterwards, two native messengers had 

 occasion to cross at the same point, the stream being 

 in partial flood, and the water more than waist deep. 

 Both had rifles, and it was agreed that they should cross 

 separately, each, from the bank, covering, with his rifle, 

 the other as he crossed. The first had not got half-way 

 over when he was pulled under, and the precautions taken 

 proved vain, for his friend's rifle spoke to no purpose. 



A rather pathetic case occurred years ago on the 

 Zambezi. A number of native women were washing 

 clothes, when one of them was seized by a crocodile, 

 which, swimming to a small sandspit, some oneh undred 

 yards from the bank, landed her there, fainting, but alive. 

 The other women, though they talked excitedly, made 

 no attempt to run for help, or take any other active step. 

 As it happened, a young half-caste Portuguese came along 

 at the moment, and, grasping the situation, at once 

 jumped into a canoe, and paddled to where the woman 

 was lying. He had actually covered more than half 

 the distance, when the watchful brute, concealed in the 

 water close by, seized its prey again and disappeared 

 with her for the last time. 



