A TERRIBLE CROCODILE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9919, 7 September 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A TERRIBLE CROCODILE.

From the description by Mr. Swettenhamin *' Malay Sketches," the Malay crocodile is nob much more amiable a creature than the crocodile of the Mile whose qualities have been recorded in tho old song. Mr. Sweb benham says :—" Perhaps ib is the extraordinary fitness of her surroundings (I say her advisedly), perhaps the art with which Nature designed the body of the saurian to make you think her a log, or a stranded palm branch, a half buried spar of a wrecked boat, or even a lighter or darker ridge of surrounding mud — certain it is that as the crocodile lies thus, basking in the sun, which makes air, water, and blistering slime shimmer and dance before your eyes, you will not notice the creature— nay, even when pointed out to you, it is ten to one thab you will not even then realise thab she is there. But get nearer, speak no word, and let your rowers pull a long and noiseless stroke, till someone with a quick eye and a steady hand can put a bullet in the reptile's neck. As that great mouth suddenly opens, disclosing the row of shining teeth ; as ib shuts again with the noise of a steel trap ; as the horrible scaly claws dig deep into the mud in their agony, and the great spiked tail lashes round in fury ; as the loathsome yellow belly slides over the ooze and you catch sight of the stony cruelty of the crocodile'* eye, you will realise what manner of a thing she is, and you will probably conceive for her and ail her kind a deadly horror and loathing, and a consuming desire to slay the whole brood will seize you then and remain with you for all time. If ib should happen to you to have to fight a wounded crocodile at close quarters, if accident bring* you in contact with a man who has just lost arm or leg, or with a corpse ouh of which a crocodile nas torn life, your feelings towards these river murderers will not be softened. There are Malay rivers so infested by these reptiles thab at low water, for a mile or two from the river's mouth, they will be seen in twos and threes, or larger groups, lying on either bank basking or sleeping in the sun, Ib repeatedly happens that they knock people oub of their boats and thou kill and devour them, and in places where the creatures are specially numerous, if a crocodile is shot dead on the bank, in less than an hour the carcase will be dragged into the river, and a crowd of i the reptiles will be tearing ill iu pieces an,d | fighting for the remain*." ---—" '- v ;