Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



island sand-bank. He landed from his canoe, and 

 the beast not being such a monster as many, they 

 managed to drag it into the canoe, and were 

 paddling off when it suddenly revived. He never 

 knew quite what happened, but remembered he 

 was about to call his men's attention to the 

 fact that the "croc's" tail was still moving a 

 little, when everything went to blazes, and he 

 found himself in the water struggling to reach 

 the island again. This he and his men succeeded 

 in doing safely, and, luckily, their canoe, bottom 

 upwards and with a side stove in, drifted on to 

 a promontory of their sand-bank a little further 

 down. The crocodile meanwhile continued to 

 lash the water and perform extraordinary evolu- 

 tions by the scene of the disaster, and eventually 

 sank in shallow water, where they could see 

 him. They had, however, lost interest in him, 

 and it was all they could do to patch up their 

 craft sufficiently to reach the bank of the river. 

 Eat, everything was lost, and after a night on 

 the bank they had to force their way through 

 the bush till they struck a village and pro- 

 cured another canoe. 



The number of natives taken by these fearful 

 river pests annually is very great. I personally 

 heard of many cases, but the details are too 

 horrible to discuss. All the more credit then 

 to the late Konnie Buxton of the Norfolk 



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