294 CROCODILES. 



I 



On land they kill them more easily still, as may be 

 judged of by the following* relation of Adanson : 



" One of my negroes," he writes, " killed a crocodile 

 seven feet long. He had found him asleep in some 

 bushes at the foot of a tree, on the bank of a river; 

 he approached him gently, not to wake him, and very 

 .adroitly stabbed him with a knife in the side of the 

 neck, just bolow the bones of the head and ear, and 

 pierced him almost through and through. The animal, 

 wounded to death, drew himself up painfully and 

 struck the negro's legs with his tail so violently, that 

 it felled him to the earth. But this one, without 

 loosing his hold, rose instantly, and in order to have 

 nothing to fear from the wounded mouth of the 

 animal, he enveloped it in a pair of cotton drawers, 

 whilst his comrade held the tail. The negro then with- 

 drew his knife and separated the head from the trunk." 



"In Egypt," says Lacepede, " they dig deep holes 

 on the paths of this inordinate brute, which they cover 

 over with the branches of trees. They are afterwards 

 aroused by the cries of the crocodile, which, taking 

 on its return to the river the same route which it bad 

 followed in wandering from its banks, passes over the 

 pit, Mis into it, and is at once beaten to death or 

 taken in nets. Others attach one end of a strong cord 

 to a tree ; on the other end they fix a hook and a lamb, 

 whose cries attract the crocodile, which, in carrying 



