266 THE CROCODILE 



within six or eight feet of the edge of the water un- 

 less you are many feet above it. It is a generally 

 admitted fact that the crocodile has a surprising 

 power of seeing distant objects from under water, 

 and once having marked down prospective prey, 

 his method of procedure is one of the utmost cool- 

 ness and the most methodical calculation. He 

 rises so slowly and unobtrusively to the surface 

 that only the eyes and crown of the head are 

 exposed, and probably in nine cases out of ten 

 these escape observation. Sinking once more he 

 gradually and imperceptibly draws near to the 

 unconscious object of his desires, which may 

 be a native knee-deep performing his evening 

 ablutions ; a woman, her sleeping child slung 

 upon her back, filling the domestic water-pots ; an 

 antelope drinking — all is grist to the devouring 

 crocodile. Little by little, still invisible, that 

 terrible dusky form glides slowly beneath the sur- 

 face of the water, until, arrived at a point but a 

 few yards from its unsuspecting victim, there is 

 suddenly a terrific, a lightning rush, a heavy 

 splash, a wild, agonising scream, and — silence. A 

 disturbance takes place out yonder in the deeper 

 water, a hand and arm appear and disappear, a 

 slight wave dances gently landward, and the 

 earthenware water-pots on the river bank are the 

 sole evidence of a tragedy which is all too frequent. 

 I have seen two persons thus taken, or rather 

 I saw them and saw them no longer, so in- 

 stantaneous was the ghastly incident ; but what 

 is so terrible in such experiences is their hopeless- 

 ness, the impossibility, though the victim were 



