242 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
adspersa ?), and I have also observed Rana fasciata, . 
— Cystignathus senegalensis, and a species of Discoglossus. 
Amongst toads there are Bufo tuberosus, Brachymerus 
bifasciatus (the pretty little two-striped toad), and others 
which I could not name or identify. | 
When you come to consider the Reptiles of the Upper 
Congo, the crocodile is the first to attract your attention, 
because he is the member of that class with which you 
most come into contact, and also because he is one of the 
principal dangers in river travelling, being continually on 
the look-out for a meal when there appears to be any 
likelihood of a boat accident. The natives say that when 
the fearful wind storms or tornadoes take place on the 
Congo during the rainy season, the crocodiles follow 
closely in the wake of the wave-tossed canoes, hoping 
that, ere they can reach the shelter of the bank, the wind, — 
as 1t often does, may blow them over with their human 
freight, and throw a choice of limbs in the crocodile’s way. 
It is curious that the crocodiles in this river rarely do 
more than lop off an arm or a leg from their human 
victims in the water, leaving the rest of the unhappy 
creature to attain the shore, if he still live, minus the loss 
of an arm or leg; that is to say, unless he has to run the 
gauntlet of other crocodiles and become a limbless trunk. 
But I do not know so much that it is a curious custom on 
the part of these monsters as that it indicates a consider- 
able amount of common-sense. Half a loaf is better than 
no bread, and I think the crocodile does wisely to lop off 
a limb with his steel-trap-like jaws, and go away quietly 
with his bonne bouche, rather than strugele for the whole 
body in a fatiguing contest, during which either the native 
might (as they are traditionally supposed to do) plunge 
his thumbs into the eyes of his foe, and thus force him to — 
relinquish his hold in agony, or stick his knife into the | 
crocodile’s belly; or his friends, having had time for 
reflection, might decide to interfere and beat off the 
crocodile with their spears or paddles. Of course if a man 
is thus maimed he very rarely reaches land alive; but I 
once saw an individual who, after leaving an arm in a 
