THE CROCODILE 261 



river, flowing sluggishly behind low banks, which, 

 nevertheless, concealed it until within a few 

 yards. Glancing up and down the stream, I 

 saw that at a short distance below me it de- 

 scribed a sharp bend, the left margin jutting 

 out in a shallow sand-bank midway across the 

 river. Upon this, fast asleep in the sun, their 

 serrated tails drawn just clear of the water and 

 their terrible jaws wide open, reposed several 

 large crocodiles. By making a quiet detour I 

 reached a point a little above, and not more 

 than 40 yards from the unsuspecting reptiles. 

 My Lee-Metford bullet struck the one selected 

 a little behind the eye, and carried away a large 

 portion of the back of the skull. The only 

 evidence that he had been hit lay in the immediate 

 closing of the wide-open jaws. He lay perfectly 

 still, whilst his companions gained the water in a 

 great hurry to an accompaniment of hollow 

 plunges. On opening him, the stomach was 

 found to contain some water-buck meat and a 

 little of the flesh of a mud-fish, but that he was a 

 malefactor was evident from the much eroded 

 remains of a copper or brass wire bangle found 

 among several pounds of stones and pebbles of 

 various sizes. The skull of this creature is still 

 in my possession, and is a trophy of no small 

 interest. A very singular characteristic of 

 crocodiles is their astonishing nervous vitality. 

 Until more than an hour after the death and 

 dismemberment of the specimen above described 

 the muscles continued to twitch and the heart to 

 palpitate. Whilst struggling to remove the hard, 

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