The Arabs Assert
That The Dark-Coloured, Thick-Bodied Species Is More To Be
Dreaded Than The Other.
The common belief that the scales of the crocodile will stop a
bullet is very erroneous.
If a rifle is loaded with the moderate
charge of two and a half drachms it will throw an ounce ball
through the scales of the hardest portion of the back; but were
the scales struck obliquely, the bullet might possibly glance
from the surface, as in like manner it would ricochet from the
surface of water. The crocodile is so difficult to kill outright,
that people are apt to imagine that the scales have resisted
their bullets. The only shots that will produce instant death are
those that strike the brain or the spine through the neck. A shot
through the shoulder is fatal; but as the body immediately sinks,
and does not reappear upon the surface until the gases have
distended the carcase, the game is generally carried away by the
stream before it has had time to float. The body of a crocodile
requires from twelve to eighteen hours before it will rise to the
surface, while that of the hippopotamus will never remain longer
than two hours beneath the water, and will generally rise in an
hour and a half after death. This difference in time depends upon
the depth and temperature; in deep holes of the river of from
thirty to fifty feet, the water is much cooler near the bottom,
thus the gas is not generated in the body so quickly as in
shallow and warmer water.
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