WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



often reaching to the arm-pits — the natives prepared 

 and drank some "crocodile-dana," while I fired at 

 random into the stream to drive off reptiles that might 

 be lurking about our path. 



In the course of my expeditions I have met many 

 natives who had been maimed by young crocodiles. 



One may easily be deceived as to the number of 

 crocodiles in a river. They swim along below the sur- 

 face almost completely hidden from sight; only from 

 time to time they raise their nostrils above the water. 

 When they lie on sand-banks or on the river-shores or 

 on overhanging branches of trees, they disappear as 

 quick as lightning into the water at the slightest sign 

 of danger. 



Young reptiles hardly hatched — by the sun — squeal 

 and bite when touched ; old animals when captured 

 utter a strange, wild sound, something between a snarl 

 and a roar, a sound which I have also often heard free 

 animals utter about the breeding-time. 



The shot which tells best on a crocodile is the one 

 which hits its head just where the vertebral column 

 begins ; it kills instantly. 



My friend Captain Merker once had an amusing ex- 

 perience with the eggs of crocodiles. He had found a 

 number of them near the volcanic Dschalla Lake, and 

 had taken them with him to Fort Moschi. A week after 

 he heard in his room a squeaking sound, as of young 

 mice. He traced it to a cigar-box into which he had 



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