NATURAL HISTORY. 243 
leviathan’s jaws, did not succumb to the shock or the 
rapid current, but reached the shore and lived to tell 
the tale. | 
_ When the sun shines brightly, and the day is still and 
hot, then the crocodiles by preference leave the water, and 
repair to some sand-bank or open beach, where they lie 
and bake, rather than bask, in the sun, its fierce heat soon 
drying up their wet scales, and completely changing their 
colour from a dark green-brown, tree-like in tone, to a 
light dust-grey, precisely the colour of the boulders of 
rock that strew the sandy shore. Indeed, the crocodile’s 
power of assimilation to his surroundings stands him in 
wonderful stead to deceive his victims and to mislead his 
only enemy—man. When he lies listlessly floating on 
the surface of the tepid water, half dreamily enjoying the 
sun’s warmth and his slow motion with the current, it is 
hard to take him for aught but another of the many 
torn-up logs and branches that are being carried along by 
the river; for, like them, he submits to be gently rolled 
over and over as if an unresisting victim, and he too is 
dark greenish brown, and somewhat jagged in aspect. It 
is only when the too regular serration of his back and tail 
are noticed, or that he attracts your attention by a sudden 
motion, that you distinguish in him a more interesting 
and dangerous object than a mere floating log. Again, 
when the crocodile is lying on the sandy shore, he seems 
merely a ledge of rock, grey and rough, like the fragments 
of stone around him. When this reptile lies on the sand 
he has a way of so tucking his limbs into him and lying 
prone and flat, with so little variation in his outline that 
it is small wonder that you take him for an inanimate 
object ; nor does movement on his part quickly undeceive 
you, for he glides so smoothly towards the water that, 
before you realize that the “log” is taking itself off, a 
splash and the wave of a serrated tail enlighten you as to 
the real character of the phenomenon. The tail of the 
crocodile is, as you know, a terrible weapon. With it, if 
effectively employed, he can stun or kill a man in the 
water, and unwary victims who stand too near the bank 
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