CHAPTER XII 



CROCODILES, SNAKES, AND SOME OTHER 

 REPTILES 



We now come to what it is, 1 think, impossible 

 to refrain from regarding as the loathsome, ab- 

 horrent, and repulsive among the inhabitants of 

 this part of Africa — those revolting forms which 

 Nature would seem to have created in some 

 regrettable moment of boundless vindictiveness, 

 for the express purpose of surrounding the beauti- 

 ful and useful members of the animal creation 

 with the ever-present risk of a ghastly death by 

 constriction, venom, or drowning. Were there 

 traceable in this incomprehensible dispensation 

 any beneficial or indeed intelligible purpose, any 

 advantage to the many in the sacrifice of the few, 

 the horrible mission of the reptiles might be 

 understood and, to some slight extent perhaps, 

 respected. But there is none whatsoever. When 

 one comes to reflect upon the immense and lam- 

 entable loss of human and animal life caused by 

 the vast numbers of reptiles by which Africa is 

 infested — a loss of life uncompensated by any 

 single discoverable advantage, unrequited by the 

 smallest benefit to those who survive — one fails 

 hopelessly to comprehend their inclusion in the 



scheme of Nature, or to feel anything regarding 



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