ot farther off than twenty yards from the canoe, which
apparently it did not see, and opening its tremendous jaws, afforded the
travellers a splendid view of its teeth and throat. Briant afterwards
asserted that he could see down its throat, and could _almost_ tell what
it had had for dinner!

"Plaze, sir, may I shoot him?" cried Briant, seizing his loaded musket,
and looking towards the captain for permission.

"It's of no use while in that position," remarked the trader, who
regarded the hideous-looking monster with the calm unconcern of a man
accustomed to such sights.

"You may try;" said the captain with a grin. Almost before the words
had left his lips, Phil took a rapid aim and fired. At the same
identical moment the crocodile shut his jaws with a snap, as if he had
an intuitive perception that something uneatable was coming. The bullet
consequently hit his forehead, off which it glanced as if it had struck
a plate of cast-iron. The reptile gave a wabble, expressive of lazy
surprise, and sank slowly back into the slimy water.

The shot startled more than one huge creature, for immediately
afterwards they heard several flops in the water near them, but the tall
sedges prevented their seeing what animals they were. A whole troop of
monkeys, too, went shrieking away into the woods, showing that those
nimble creatures had been watching all their movements, although, until
that moment, they had taken good care to keep themselves out of sight.

"Never fire at a crocodile's head," said the trader, as the party
resumed their paddles, and continued their ascent of the stream; "you
might as well fire at a stone wall. It's as hard as iron. The only
place that's sure to kill it just behind the foreleg. The niggers
always spear them there."

"What do they spear them for?" asked Dr Hopley.

"They eat 'em," replied the trader; "and the meat's not so bad after you
get used to it."

"Ha!" exclaimed Glynn Proctor; "I should fancy the great difficulty is
to get used to it."

"If you ever chance to go for a week without tasting fresh meat,"
replied the trader quietly, "you'll not find it so difficult as you
think."

That night the travellers encamped in the woods, and a wild charmingly
romantic scene their night bivouac was--so thought Ailie, and so, too,
would you have thought, reader, had you been there. King Bumble managed
to kindle three enormous fires, for the triple purpose of keeping the
party warm--for