44 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
supply is invaluable to an expedition, where repairs 
are necessary almost daily. The contraction of the 
wet hide during the process of drying is sufficient 
to draw together the split stock of a gun, and 
render it stronger than the original. 
I have seen wheels of field-guns, the spokes of 
which had become loosened by the dry climate and 
exposure to the sun, rendered tighter than when 
new, by interlacing them with raw crocodile’s hide, 
well soaked for two or three days; these were 
dried in the shade gradually, and they resembled 
a cobweb in appearance, but were as hard as 
horn. 
The difference of taste is unaccountable; the 
natives of Central Africa refuse the flesh of a 
crocodile, although they will eat stinking fish. The 
Arabs eat the crocodile, but are most particular that 
fish should be free from taint. 
The eggs of crocodiles are like those of the 
goose, both in size and shape. The female scrapes 
a hole in the sand, and lays from fifty to a hundred, 
which she carefully buries. The young, when 
hatched, find their way to the river, and are no 
longer an object of maternal care. 
I have never eaten the eggs, but they are much 
prized by some tribes, although rejected by others. 
The natives of the Garo Hills, in the neighbourhood 
of the Brahmaputra river, collect a harvest of these 
ova during the season when the river has forsaken 
the high shore, and the sandbanks are raised above 
the level. It is a simple matter to discover the 
