night with their camels; these were the men who
had been forced to serve by the Governor of
Cassala. There was no possibility of proceeding
for some days, therefore I sent El Baggar across
the river to endeavour to engage camels, while
I devoted myself to a search for the crocodile. I
shortly discovered that it was unfair in the extreme
to charge one particular animal with the death of
the two Arabs, as several large crocodiles were lying
upon the mud in various places. A smaller one was
lying asleep high and dry upon the bank; the wind
was blowing strong, sp that, by carefully approaching,
I secured a good shot within thirty yards, and
killed it on the spot by a bullet through the head,
placed about an inch above the eyes.
After some time, the large crocodiles who had
taken to the water at the report of the gun; again
appeared, and crawled slowly out of the muddy river
to their basking-places upon the bank. A crocodile
usually sleeps with its mouth wide open, I therefore
waited until the immense jaws of the nearest were
well expanded, showing a grand row of glittering
teeth, when I crept carefully towards it through the
garden of thickly-planted cotton. Bacheet and Wat
Gamma followed in great eagerness. In a short time I
arrived within about forty yards of the beast, as it lay
upon a flat mud bank formed by one of the numerous
torrents that had carried down the soil during the
storm of yesterday. The cover ceased, and it was
impossible to 'approach nearer without alarming the.
crocodile; it was a fine specimen, apparently nineteen
or twenty feet in length, and I took a steady
shot with the little Fletcher rifle at the temple, exactly
in front of the point of union of the head with
the spine. The jaws clashed together, and a convulsive
start followed by a twitching of the tail led
me to suppose that sudden death had succeeded the
shot; but, knowing the peculiar tenacity of life possessed
by the crocodile, I fired another shot at the
shoulder, as the huge body lay so close to the river’s
edge that the slightest struggle would cause it to
disappear. To my surprise, this shot, far from producing
a quietus, gave rise to a series of extraordinary
convulsive struggles. One moment it rolled
upon its back, lashed out right and left with its; tail,
and ended by toppling over into the river.
This was too much for the excitable Bacheet, who,
followed by his friend, Wat Gamma, with more
courage than discretion, rushed into the river, and
endeavoured to catch the crocodile by the tail.
Before I had time to call them back, these two Arab
water-dogs were up to their necks in the river,
screaming out directions to each other while they
were feeling for the body of the monster with their
feet. At length I succeeded in calling them to
shore, and we almost immediately saw the body
of the crocodile appear belly upwards, about fifty
yards down the stream; the forepaws were above
the water, but,’ after rolling round several times, it
once more disappeared, rapidly carried away by the