Banks Indeed At High Water Can Hardly Be
Said To Exist, The Water Stretching Away Into The Mangrove Swamps
For Miles And Miles, And You Can Then Go, In A Suitable Small Canoe,
Away Among These Swamps As Far As You Please.
This is a fascinating pursuit.
But it is a pleasure to be indulged
in with caution; for one thing, you are certain to come across
crocodiles. Now a crocodile drifting down in deep water, or lying
asleep with its jaws open on a sand-bank in the sun, is a
picturesque adornment to the landscape when you are on the deck of a
steamer, and you can write home about it and frighten your relations
on your behalf; but when you are away among the swamps in a small
dug-out canoe, and that crocodile and his relations are awake - a
thing he makes a point of being at flood tide because of fish coming
along - and when he has got his foot upon his native heath - that is
to say, his tail within holding reach of his native mud - he is
highly interesting, and you may not be able to write home about him-
-and you get frightened on your own behalf; for crocodiles can, and
often do, in such places, grab at people in small canoes. I have
known of several natives losing their lives in this way; some native
villages are approachable from the main river by a short cut, as it
were, through the mangrove swamps, and the inhabitants of such
villages will now and then go across this way with small canoes
instead of by the constant channel to the village, which is almost
always winding.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 92 of 705
Words from 25049 to 25331
of 194943