38 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
digestion, as fowls and other birds swallow sand and 
stones for the same object. Nearly every crocodile 
that I have examined contained a certain amount 
of coarse gravel within its stomach. This has a 
peculiar power of contraction and expansion, capable 
of sustaining great privation when food is scarce, and 
of accommodating itself to any amount of sudden 
plenty. 
Among the accidents that occurred to my expe¬ 
dition, one man had his arm bitten off at the elbow, 
being seized while collecting aquatic vegetables from 
the bank. He was saved from utter loss by his com¬ 
rades, who held him while his arm was in the jaws 
of the crocodile. The man was brought to me in 
dreadful agony, and the stump was immediately 
amputated above the fracture. Another man was 
seized by the leg while assisting to push a vessel 
off a sandbank ; he also was saved by a crowd of 
soldiers who were with him, engaged in the same 
work : this man lost his leg. 
The captain of No. io tug was drowned in the 
dock vacated by the 108 ton steamer, which had 
been floated into the river by a small canal cut 
from the basin for that purpose. This channel 
was about 30 yards in length, and 3 feet in depth. 
No person ever suspected that a crocodile would 
take possession of the dock, and it was considered 
as the safest place for the troops to bathe. 
One evening at muster the captain was absent, 
and, as it was known that a short time previously 
he had gone down to wash at the basin, he was 
