THE NAEBADA VALLEY 37 



generally brings tlie reptile near the spot; and many a 

 shot bird thus disappears, as if by magic, before the eyes 

 of the gunner. But he will prefer your plump retriever, 

 should he see him nearing the duck as he comes up. A 

 dear old spaniel of mine named " Quail," possessed of an 

 uncontrollable "craze after the deuks," had so many 

 narrow escapes of this sort that I never taught any of 

 the four generations of his descendants I have possessed 

 to retrieve from water. 



Although our crocodiles are thus little noxious to life, 

 and may even advance some claims to merit as scavengers, 

 it is not in human nature to refrain from destroying so 

 hideous a reptile when a chance occurs. There is a spot 

 in the gorge of the Marble Rocks where such a chance is 

 seldom wanting. A flat and slightly hollowed rock-shelf 

 at the water's edge invites to noontide repose these 

 unlovely monsters of the deep. Cold weather and a warm 

 sun seem to be the most favourable conditions. The 

 place is on the left bank, some quarter of a mile above 

 the rest-house; and is marked by the droppings of the 

 brutes, and of the aquatic birds that invariably watch 

 over their slumbers. If now, as midday approaches, you 

 will take your rifle and cross over below the house, and 

 get you round to where a cleft in the rocks commands 

 the spot, and if the place has not recently been much 

 disturbed, you will shortly perceive (if he is not there 

 before you) the seeing and smelling apparatus of one or 

 more of the reptiles floating slowly in from mid-stream, 

 like two bungs out of a cask. Nothing but experience 

 will enable you to distinguish them at this distance from 

 the pieces of drift wood always floating down the stream, 

 so marvellously does nature protect even the most loath- 

 some of her productions. The crocodile approaches the 

 projected scene of his siesta with immense caution. Long 

 and keenly he reconnoitres it from a distance ; and if he 

 has any suspicions he will sink and rise again and again 

 during his approach. If not he will descend after the 

 first good look, and then swim right in under water ; and 

 the next thing you will see of him will be his rugged 

 head lying on the ledge of rock below you, and a pair of 



