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. There the
crocodile lay sunning himself on the sand bank. I supposed he
must be dead; but when I accidentally broke a twig, he
immediately commenced to slide off into the water. Thereupon I
stopped him with a bullet in the spine. The first shot had
smashed a hole in his head, just behind the eye, about the size
of an ordinary coffee cup. In spite of this wound, which would
have been instantly fatal to any warm-blooded animal, the
creature was so little affected that it actually reacted to a
slight noise made at some distance from where it lay. Of course
the wound would probably have been fatal in the long run.
The best spot to shoot at, indeed, is not the head but the spine
immediately back of the head.
These brutes are exceedingly powerful. They are capable of taking
down horses and cattle, with no particular effort. This I know
from my own observation. Mr. Fleischman, however, was privileged
to see the wonderful sight of the capture and destruction of a
full-grown rhinoceros by a crocodile. The photographs he took of
this most extraordinary affair leave no room for doubt. Crossing
a stream was always a matter of concern to us. The boys beat the
surface of the water vigorously with their safari sticks. On
occasion we have even let loose a few heavy bullets to stir up
the pool before venturing in.
A steep climb through thorn and brush would always extricate us
from the river jungle when we became tired of it. Then we found
ourselves in a continuous but scattered growth of small trees.
Between the trunks of these we could see for a hundred yards or
so before their numbers closed in the view. Here was the
favourite haunt of numerous beautiful impalla. We caught glimpses
of them, flashing through the trees; or occasionally standing,
gazing in our direction, their slender necks stretched high,
their ears pointed for us. These curious ones were generally the
does. The bucks were either more cautious or less inquisitive. A
herd or so of eland also liked this covered country; and there were
always a few waterbuck and rhinoceroses about. Often too we here
encountered stragglers from the open plains-zebra or
hartebeeste, very alert and suspicious in unaccustomed
surroundings.
A great deal of the plains country had been burned over; and a
considerable area was still afire.
