CEOCODILTTS KLLOTiCtTS. 17 
crocodiles found at various localities along the banks of the Nile, but by the testimony 
also of many authors — for example, Diodorus Siculus * and iElian 2 . The latter states 
that they were plentiful at Ombos, Koptos, and Arsinoe, where they were reared, and 
that it was unsafe to walk along the bank of the river, to wash one's feet in the stream, 
or to draw water. Leo Africanus 3 , writing about the middle of the 16th century, not 
only mentions that they were very numerous, but adds that if all had been equally 
rapacious the Nile valley would have been quite uninhabitable ; and Prospero Alpini 4 
states that during his stay in Egypt crocodiles were especially abundant above Cairo, 
and that towards Thebes they were so numerous that it was unsafe to bathe in the 
river or in the lakes. Sonnini 5 mentions that the little boat in which he went up 
the river was often, in the neighbourhood of Thebes, surrounded by crocodiles lying 
on the surface of the water, and that they allowed him to pass with perfect indifference ; 
and in the third decade of this century it was still very numerous in places, as 
a traveller 6 relates that in one locality he counted twenty-one in sight at one and the 
same time. John Antes 7 accounted for the absence of crocodiles in the delta and 
immediately above Cairo, just as Edward Brown 8 had done before him, by reason of 
the vast numbers of boats that were continuously sailing up and down the river 
between Rosetta, Damietta, and Cairo. A similar cause has brought about its complete 
disappearance below the First Cataract. The splendid work achieved by the savants 
attached to the French Expedition to Egypt made known the marvels of the civilization 
of ancient Egypt to an astonished Europe, and ultimately drew, first a few enterprising 
travellers from the different European nationalities, and others who entered Egypt 
from India by Kosseir. As years went on, the number of travellers who flocked to the 
Nile valley to see its wonders, or for purposes of sport, led to the creation of greater 
facilities for travel, of which so many have availed themselves that the Nile has at 
last become the highway of excursion steamers, and fleets of dahabeahs, some towed by 
steam-launches, and a regular service of steam-packet boats. Nearly every traveller, 
savant, sportsman, or inquisitive sightseer, from Europe, India, or America, has directed 
his arms of precision against the crocodile, which was considered one of the wonders 
of the Nile, and a beast, if possible, to be killed. This, and the commotion caused 
in the formerly tranquil river by the ever increasing traffic, have effectually freed the 
Lower Nile of one of its most interesting denizens, reverenced by the ancient inhabitants 
as a god, and recently so formidable that we read, in the end of the 17th century 9 , 
of its even stopping the progress of small caravans. 
The Nile crocodile has always and justly been credited with great ferocity, but the 
1 Op. cit. p. 17. - iElian, De Fat. Anim. x. 24. 
3 Descritt. Afr. 1554, foL, Eanmsio's coll. i. p. 101. ' Op. cit. p. 218. 
5 Op. cit. iii. p. 297. 
6 Incidents of Travel in Egypt and Arabia Petrtea and the Holy Land, by an American, i. 1837, p. 98. 
7 Op. cit. p. 82. * Op. cit. ii. p. 154. 9 Maillet, op. cit. p. 32*. 
D 
