CROCODILE-RIDING. 419 



the engineer of the plantation, shot at him and 

 wounded him ; and though it did not seem that he 

 was much hurt, he was hit with such sensitive effect 

 that he immediately rose out of the pond to regain 

 the morass. It was now that David Brown, an 

 African wainman, came up ; and before tlie reptile 

 could make a dodge to get away, he threw himself 

 astride over his hack, snatched up his fore paws in 

 a moment, and held them doubled up. The beast 

 was immediately thrown upon his snout ; and though 

 able to move freely his hind feet, and slap his tail 

 about, he could not budge half a yard, his power 

 being altogether spent in a fruitless endeavour to 

 grub himself onward. As he was necessarily confined 

 to move in a circle, he was pretty nearly held to one 

 spot. The African kept his seat. His place across 

 the beast being at the shoulders, he was exposed 

 only to severe jerks as a chance of being thrown oiF. 

 In this way a huge reptile eighteen feet long, for so he 

 measured when killed, was held manu forti by one 

 man, till Downie reloaded his fowling-piece, and shot 

 him quietly through the brain. 



" You will perceive that this is precisely the feat 

 performed by Mr. Waterton. He says his Cayman 

 plunged furiously, and lashed the sand with his tail, 

 but that, being near the head, he was out of the reach 

 of the strokes of it, and that his plunging and striking 

 only made his seat uncomfortable. This seemed 

 really almost all the difficulty in David Brown's 

 horsemanship ; but as every plunge with him only 

 drove the Crocodile's nose into the ground, whereas 

 Mr. Waterton's Cayman was kept head-up by the 



