224 REPTILES 



much of one's admiration for them by reason of the 

 fouhiess of their diet), I do not know of one single 

 family of the insect genera that I would not cheer- 

 fully see blotted out for ever. Were this possible, 

 life in the tropics, at present so precarious, would 

 lose half its dangers and three-fourths of its incon- 

 veniences, and man, the expressly appointed over- 

 lord of creation, would feel that at last his position 

 was moderately tenable. 



In all the course of the Zambezi and its numerous 

 tributaries, the Crocodile, that veritable curse of 

 most African waterways, is found in large numbers, 

 and often attains to great size. Their numbers are 

 accounted for by the quantity of eggs deposited by 

 the female, amounting sometimes, it is said, to sixty 

 or seventy. These hatched in a sand-bank by the 

 heat of the sun's rays, the young immediately take 

 to water. The Crocodile of the Zambezi is the 

 miotic variety, possesses thirty-four teeth in each 

 jaw, and these being hoUow, are renewed periodi- 

 cally by others contained within them. As they 

 develop to full size, they push out the teeth 

 within which they grew, to be in turn displaced at 

 a later stage of the reptile's career. From this 

 peculiarity it has been inferred that the crocodile 

 may be the longest-lived member of the creation. 

 I have never seen one of these creatures which 

 measured more than 17 or 18 feet in length, 

 although that has been reported to have been 

 greatly exceeded. In the males four glands of 

 musk are secreted, one on each side beneath the 

 jaws, and one on either side in the region of the 



