A hippopotamus was shot two miles above a bank on which the ship lay a fortnight:it floated in three hours.As the boat was towing it down, the crocodiles were attracted by the dead beast, and several shots had to be fired to keep them off.The bullet had not entered the brain of the animal, but driven a splinter of bone into it.Alittle moisture with some gas issued from the wound, and this was all that could tell the crocodiles down the stream of a dead hippopotamus; and yet they came up from miles below.Their sense of smell must be as acute as their hearing; both are quite extraordinary.Dozens fed on the meat we left.Our Krooman, Jumbo, used to assert that the crocodile never eats fresh meat, but always keeps it till it is high and tender--and the stronger it smells the better he likes it.There seems to be some truth in this.They can swallow but small pieces at a time, and find it difficult to tear fresh meat.In the act of swallowing, which is like that of a dog, the head is raised out of the water.We tried to catch some, and one was soon hooked; it required half-a-dozen hands to haul him up the river, and the shark-hook straightened, and he got away.A large iron hook was next made, but, as the creatures could not swallow it, their jaws soon pressed it straight--and our crocodile-fishing was a failure.As one might expect,--from the power even of a salmon--the tug of a crocodile was terribly strong.
The corpse of a boy floated past the ship; a monstrous crocodile rushed at it with the speed of a greyhound, caught it and shook it, as a terrier dog does a rat.Others dashed at the prey, each with his powerful tail causing the water to churn and froth, as he furiously tore off a piece.In a few seconds it was all gone.The sight was frightful to behold.The Shire swarmed with crocodiles; we counted sixty-seven of these repulsive reptiles on a single bank, but they are not as fierce as they are in some rivers."Crocodiles,"
Says Captain Tuckey, "are so plentiful in the Congo, near the rapids, and so frequently carry off the women, who at daylight go down to the river for water, that, while they are filling their calabashes, one of the party is usually employed in throwing large stones into the water outside."Here, either a calabash on a long pole is used in drawing water, or a fence is planted.The natives eat the crocodile, but to us the idea of tasting the musky-scented, fishy-looking flesh carried the idea of cannibalism.Humboldt remarks, that in South America the alligators of some rivers are more dangerous than in others.Alligators differ from crocodiles in the fourth or canine tooth going into a hole or socket in the upper jaw, while in the crocodile it fits into a notch.The forefoot of the crocodile has five toes not webbed, the hindfoot has four toes which are webbed; in the alligator the web is altogether wanting.They are so much alike that they would no doubt breed together.
One of the crocodiles which was shot had a piece snapped off the end of his tail, another had lost a forefoot in fighting; we saw actual leeches between the teeth, such as are mentioned by Herodotus, but we never witnessed the plover picking them out.Their greater fierceness in one part of the country than another is doubtless owing to a scarcity of fish; in fact, Captain Tuckey says, of that part of the Congo, mentioned above, "There are no fish here but catfish," and we found that the lake crocodiles, living in clear water, and with plenty of fish, scarcely ever attacked man.The Shire teems with fish of many different kinds.The only time, as already remarked, when its crocodiles are particularly to be dreaded, is when the river is in flood.Then the fish are driven from their usual haunts, and no game comes down to the river to drink, water being abundant in pools inland.Hunger now impels the crocodile to lie in wait for the women who come to draw water, and on the Zambesi numbers are carried off every year.The danger is not so great at other seasons; though it is never safe to bathe, or to stoop to drink, where one cannot see the bottom, especially in the evening.One of the Makololo ran down in the dusk of the river; and, as he was busy tossing the water to his mouth with his hand, in the manner peculiar to the natives, a crocodile rose suddenly from the bottom, and caught him by the hand.
The limb of a tree was fortunately within reach, and he had presence of mind to lay hold of it.Both tugged and pulled; the crocodile for his dinner, and the man for dear life.For a time it appeared doubtful whether a dinner or a life was to be sacrificed; but the man held on, and the monster let the hand go, leaving the deep marks of his ugly teeth in it.
During our detention, in expectation of the permanent rise of the river in March, Dr. Kirk and Mr. C. Livingstone collected numbers of the wading-birds of the marshes--and made pleasant additions to our salted provisions, in geese, ducks, and hippopotamus flesh.One of the comb or knob-nosed geese, on being strangled in order to have its skin preserved without injury, continued to breathe audibly by the broken humerus, or wing-bone, and other means had to be adopted to put it out of pain.This was as if a man on the gallows were to continue to breathe by a broken armbone, and afforded us an illustration of the fact, that in birds, the vital air penetrates every part of the interior of their bodies.The breath passes through and round about the lungs--bathes the surfaces of the viscera, and enters the cavities of the bones; it even penetrates into some spaces between the muscles of the neck--and thus not only is the most perfect oxygenation of the blood secured, but, the temperature of the blood being very high, the air in every part is rarefied, and the great lightness and vigour provided for, that the habits of birds require.Several birds were found by Dr. Kirk to have marrow in the tibiae, though these bones are generally described as hollow.
