p, and
placing his feet upon its neck, with a power which his lever-like
position and prodigious strength made irresistible, he literally tore
back the monster's jaw. Having done this, he sprang up a tree, and
awaited the result of the injuries he had inflicted. The creature was,
however, not completely dead; but though it struggled violently and
moved its tail about, its once formidable jaw had lost its means of
doing harm. After sitting there a little time we saw him, as if content
with his triumph, move off through the forest among the lofty branches
of the trees, swinging himself from one to the other with an ease which
gave almost grace to his movements.

"The fellow deserves his victory. We will not attempt to shoot him,"
said Mr Sedgwick.

Indeed, I suspect by that time he might easily have escaped our bullets,
had we attempted to kill him. We now hurried out from our shelter,
eager to see the injuries which the mias had inflicted on his
antagonist. There it lay, utterly helpless, and we could stand by and
examine its huge proportions and strong coat of armour without danger.
Its struggles became fainter and fainter, and in a short time it seemed
perfectly still and dead. Knowing the strength of the crocodile, it
gave us a good idea of the immense power of muscle exercised by the
mias; and Oliver said it made him feel doubly grateful that he had
escaped from the creature which had so nearly killed him. His hurts
still gave him pain. We stopped every now and then that a cooling
lotion might be applied to them, and he got over the ground as well as
the rest of us.

Our return journey gave us rather more anxiety than we had felt on the
previous days. The knowledge that there were wild beasts on the island
kept us constantly on the alert; but, for my part, I dreaded those huge
serpents more than anything else. They none of them gave signs of their
approach, as the rattlesnake of America does, while several were of a
most venomous description.

We had been going along, keeping a bright look-out on either side, when,
being ahead as usual, my uncle looking out for game, I saw a number of
birds flying round and round a tree in a curious fashion. I was on the
point of levelling my gun and firing, when I thought I would refrain,
that I might ascertain what they were about. My uncle just then came
up, having observed the same unusual movement of the birds. Most of
them were wood-pigeons.

"Look up there