CROCODILE SHOOTING. 135 



across the country. I reached them in the dark by- 

 great good luck. 



On the 10th I rode ahead of my wagons at day- 

 dawn : thick mist was rolling along the Limpopo. Pres- 

 ently I saw two crocodiles in the stream below me. A 

 little after I had the pleasure to find, for the first time, 

 the spoor of sea-cows or hippopotami. I had never be- 

 fore seen it, but I knew it must be theirs ; it was very 

 similar to the spoor of borele, or black rhinoceros, but 

 larger, and had four toes instead of three. Before re- 

 turning to my wagons I tried to ride down a water- 

 buck, which I turned off from the river, but in this I 

 failed, though I managed to keep close to him in the 

 chase, and eventually to knock him up along with my 

 horse. 



I again sallied forth with the Bushman and fresh 

 steeds, and, directing the wagons to take the straight 

 Bourse, followed the windings of the river. Presently, 

 kicking over the bank, I behold three enormous croco- 

 liles basking on the sand on the opposite side. I was 

 istonished at their awful appearance and size, one of 

 them appearing to me to be sixteen or eighteen foet in 

 length, with a body as thick as that of an ox. On ob- 

 serving us they plunged into the dead water by the side 

 of the stream. The next minute, one of them popping 

 up his terrible head in the middle of the stream, I made 

 a beautiful shot, and sent a ball through the middle of 

 his brains. The convulsions of death which followed 

 were truly awful. At first he sank for an instant to 

 the shot, but, instantly striking the bottom with his 

 tail, he shot up above the water, when he struggled 

 violently, sometimes on his back and then again on his 

 belly, with at one time his head and- fore feet above the 

 water, and immediately after his tail and hind legs, the 



