mind to lay
hold of it. Both tugged and pulled; the crocodile for his dinner, and
the man for dear life. For a time it appeared doubtful whether a dinner
or a life was to be sacrificed; but the man held on, and the monster let
the hand go, leaving the deep marks of his ugly teeth in it.

During our detention, in expectation of the permanent rise of the river
in March, Dr. Kirk and Mr. C. Livingstone collected numbers of the wading-
birds of the marshes--and made pleasant additions to our salted
provisions, in geese, ducks, and hippopotamus flesh. One of the comb or
knob-nosed geese, on being strangled in order to have its skin preserved
without injury, continued to breathe audibly by the broken humerus, or
wing-bone, and other means had to be adopted to put it out of pain. This
was as if a man on the gallows were to continue to breathe by a broken
armbone, and afforded us an illustration of the fact, that in birds, the
vital air penetrates every part of the interior of their bodies. The
breath passes through and round about the lungs--bathes the surfaces of
the viscera, and enters the cavities of the bones; it even penetrates
into some spaces between the muscles of the neck--and thus not only is
the most perfect oxygenation of the blood secured, but, the temperature
of the blood being very high, the air in every part is rarefied, and the
great lightness and vigour provided for, that the habits of birds
require. Several birds were found by Dr. Kirk to have marrow in the
tibiae, though these bones are generally described as hollow.

During the period of our detention on the shallow part of the river in
March, Mr. Thornton came up to us from Shupanga: he had, as before
narrated, left the Expedition in 1859, and joined Baron van der Decken,
in the journey to Kilimanjaro, when, by an ascent of the mountain to the
height of 8000 feet, it was first proved to be covered with perpetual
snow, and the previous information respecting it, given by the Church of
England Missionaries, Krapf and Rebman, confirmed. It is now well known
that the Baron subsequently ascended the Kilimanjaro to 14,000 feet, and
ascertained its highest peak to be at least 20,000 feet above the sea.
Mr. Thornton made the map of the first journey, at Shupanga, from
materials collected when with the Baron; and when that work was
accomplished, followed us. He was then directed to examine geologically
the Cataract district, but not to expose himself to c