XXIX 
ANIMALS OF THE BACK BLOCKS 
297 
one’s tent, or even under the fly. Occasionally, cases 
occur of the taking of native children by hyaenas. 
They are very powerful, both in jaw and body ; a 
single hyaena can carry off a donkey, or with one 
single wrench pull a dead zebra completely round. 
On the whole, it is decidedly fortunate that they are 
such arrant cowards. 
Crocodile occur in the Tana, Athi, Thika, and Juba 
rivers and in Lakes Baringo, Rudolf, and Victoria 
Nyanza. In the Juba, they have an especially bad 
reputation, and natives are afraid to approach any part 
of the river to draw water, except when there is a 
steep bank. In Lake Baringo, on the other hand, 
natives paddle about among them with disdain and 
impunity. Hardly any animal is too large for a 
crocodile to tackle. Mr. Fleischman, the celebrated 
American .sportsman, told me how he and two other 
white witnesses saw a rhinoceros in the Jana river 
apparently held by the leg, and which eventually, in 
spite of the most frantic struggles, disappeared. It is 
difficult to conceive of any other explanation save that 
a crocodile had seized his foot, and, having curled its 
tail round a rock, had, with assistance, eventually pulled 
him in. The only objection to this conclusion seems to 
lie in the question why, if they can capture a rhinoceros, 
crocodiles do not equally batten on the hippopotamus 
which share their haunts. The length of crocodiles is 
frequently discussed, and people talk glibly of crocodiles 
of 25 feet. I know of no authenticated instance in 
Africa of a crocodile exceeding 16 feet. If a larger 
one exists he probably exists beneath the Merchiston 
Falls, where crocodiles lie in almost incredible 
numbers. 
