226 REPTILES 



a piteous scream of terror and see a commotion in 

 the deep water a few yards from where the native 

 had been standing. It was such as might have 

 been produced by some monstrous fish swimming 

 at great speed towards mid-stream, when it 

 gradually died away. That was all. Cases have 

 also occurred of people being hurled off their feet 

 and taken, even though standing some feet away 

 from the water. There is a sudden, lightning-like 

 rush, a shriek, a momentary splash, and — ^silence. 

 I have killed scores of these horrible monsters, and 

 whilst I can spare a cartridge 1 will never lose an 

 opportunity of killing them, and I beg all of my 

 readers, or such of them as may by chance find 

 themselves in crocodile-haunted waters, to earn 

 the blessings of the natives by forming the same 

 resolution. 



Of poisonous serpents Zambezia does not possess 

 many varieties. There are two Mambas, the black 

 and green ; a tree-cobra, probably the Dendraspis ; 

 several vipers, the common pufF-adder, and one or 

 two more snakes whose venom is doubtful. The 

 first-mentioned are without doubt an African 

 variation of that dreaded snake the Indian cobra, 

 and, so far as the black variety is concerned, 

 equally deadly. Personally I have never seen or 

 heard of a casualty occurring which was attribut- 

 able to this reptile throughout my service in 

 Africa ; but in the fatal cases recorded, his bite has 

 usually caused death in about twenty minutes. 

 This creature has also the power of projecting its 

 venom for some distance. A friend of mine in 

 South Afi-ica, who witnessed an instance of this 



