e
banks, or only half submerged. In this position, too, they were all but
undistinguishable as living creatures. I think this is perhaps because
of their complete immobility. The creatures of the woods, standing quite
still, are difficult enough to see; but I have a notion that the eye,
unknown to itself, catches the sum total of little flexings of the
muscles, movements of the skin, winkings, even the play of wind and
light in the hair of the coat, all of which, while impossible of
analysis, together relieve the appearance of dead inertia. The vitality
of a creature like the crocodile, however, seems to have withdrawn into
the inner recesses of its being. It lies like a log of wood, and for a
log of wood it is mistaken.

Nevertheless the crocodile has stored in it somewhere a fearful
vitality. The swiftness of its movements when seizing prey is most
astonishing; a swirl of water, the sweep of a powerful tail, and the
unfortunate victim has disappeared. For this reason it is especially
dangerous to approach the actual edge of any of the great rivers, unless
the water is so shallow that the crocodile could not possibly approach
under cover, as is its cheerful habit. We had considerable difficulty in
impressing this elementary truth on our hill-bred totos until one day,
hearing wild shrieks from the direction of the river, I rushed down
to find the lot huddled together in the very middle of a sand spit
that-reached well out into the stream. Inquiry developed that while
paddling in the shallows they had been surprised by the sudden
appearance of an ugly snout and well drenched by the sweep of an eager
tail. The stroke fortunately missed. We stilled the tumult, sat down
quietly to wait, and at the end of ten minutes had the satisfaction of
abating that croc.

Generally we killed the brutes where we found them and allowed them to
drift away with the current. Occasionally however we wanted a piece of
hide, and then tried to retrieve them. One such occasion showed very
vividly the tenacity of life and the primitive nervous systems of these
great saurians.

I discovered the beast, head out of water, in a reasonable sized pool
below which were shallow rapids. My Springfield bullet hit him fair,
whereupon he stood square on his head and waved his tail in the air,
rolled over three or four times, thrashed the water, and disappeared.
After waiting a while we moved on downstream. Returning four hours later
I sneaked up quietly.