the eggs dug out and devoured. The
fish-hawk makes havoc among the few young ones that escape their other
enemies. Our men were constantly on the look-out for crocodiles' nests.
One was found containing thirty-five newly-laid eggs, and they declared
that the crocodile would lay as many more the second night in another
place. The eggs were a foot deep in the sand on the top of a bank ten
feet high. The animal digs a hole with its foot, covers the eggs, and
leaves them till the river rises over the nest in about three months
afterwards, when she comes back, and assists the young ones out. We once
saw opposite Tette young crocodiles in December, swimming beside an
island in company with an old one. The yolk of the egg is nearly as
white as the real white. In taste they resemble hen's eggs with perhaps
a smack of custard, and would be as highly relished by whites as by
blacks, were it not for their unsavoury origin in men-eaters.

Hunting the Senze (_Aulacodus Swindernianus_), an animal the size of a
large cat, but in shape more like a pig, was the chief business of men
and boys as we passed the reedy banks and low islands. They set fire to
a mass of reeds, and, armed with sticks, spears, bows and arrows, stand
in groups guarding the outlets through which the seared Senze may run
from the approaching flames. Dark dense volumes of impenetrable smoke
now roll over on the lee side of the islet, and shroud the hunters. At
times vast sheets of lurid flames bursting forth, roaring, crackling and
exploding, leap wildly far above the tall reeds. Out rush the terrified
animals, and amid the smoke are seen the excited hunters dancing about
with frantic gesticulations, and hurling stick, spear, and arrow at their
burned out victims. Kites hover over the smoke, ready to pounce on the
mantis and locusts as they spring from the fire. Small crows and
hundreds of swallows are on eager wing, darting into the smoke and out
again, seizing fugitive flies. Scores of insects, in their haste to
escape from the fire, jump into the river, and the active fish enjoy a
rare feast.

We returned to the "Pioneer" on the 9th of October, having been away one
month. The ship's company had used distilled water, a condenser having
been sent out from England; and there had not been a single case of
sickness on board since we left, though there were so many cases of fever
the few days she lay in the same spot last year. Our boat party drank
the