460 



LOWER VER TEBRA TES. 



and from east to west, and has been known from time immemorial, not only being 

 mentioned in the oldest manuscripts, but appearing on the walls of the ancient Egyp- 

 tian monuments, which almost antedate history, and is not infrequently found pre- 

 served as a mummy. In the upper regions of the Nile these animals actually swarm, 

 and though killed by the hundreds by hunters, and when young by the thousands by 

 their natural enemies, they seem in this locality to hold their own in spite of all per- 

 secution. Though rendering the African rivers dangerous to travelers, and destroy- 







'mm 



Fig. 265. — Gavialla gangeticus^ gavial. 



ing many of the herdsman's cattle, by seizing them by the snout as they are about to 

 drink, the crocodile, preferring, as it does, the more putrid flesh, as a scavenger is of 

 considerable value, performing in the water what the hysena does on land. Living- 

 stone, in writing of this animal, says it often seizes children as they play on the banks 

 of the rivers, not infrequently rendering them senseless by a blow of the tail. The 

 full-grown natives are, however, seldom attacked, except when they at night attempt 

 to swim across the rivers or enter where the animals are particularly abundant. Ant- 



