THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

In African Wilds.

The building of the bridge at Victor-a Falls and the Cape to Cairo railway necessarily biought a great many people to gelhec at this spot, where there were pro■viouslj no houses, and, indeed, no one but an occasional traveller or hunter. Besides the bird:., and the butterflies and the fish the chief living animals were lions arid elephants and hippopotamuses and crocodiles and jackals and hyenas. Tl\e crocodiles were "found to be so uumeroufc — as maiy as 30 being seen together sonaetime3 — that they have had to be killed in great numbers for the safety o* the people at work. One is known to have killed a man and a woman, and »vas itself only killed aftei it had seized another man. A r-ative woman was taking water from the river, when the crocodile knocked her into it with its tail, seized her in its horrid mouth, and dragged her away. Her husband was close by, but was powerles* to save her. He determined to be avenged", however, and for several nights waited in a canoe with a loaded gun. He too disappeared, and it is thought that the crocodile knocked him out of the canoe as it had knocked his wife off the bank, and took him to its hole under the bank. A week later it got another man, but instead of taking him into its hold it carried him to an island. Here its victim got hold of the reeds and strong g-ra=s and held on so tightly that the crocodile could not get away with him. Of couise, he scieamed