Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-11-06
A Fight with a Crocodile.

What a queer craft! I'm glad /
haven't got to go up to Khartoum in
thing like that p"
SO spoke II bearded. brownfaced
English officer standing upon the bank
of the Upper Nile. close to the Arab
Village of Shendy, midway between
Berber and Khartoum.
Certainly it was queer craft, and
he might well be glad that he had not
got 10 make u long voyage in it. twas
big, clumsy, iiat-bottomed barge, al
most rs broad as it was long, and
steered by gaunt, haif-clad Arab
with something that looked very much
like an oYergrown wooden shovel But
the rigging was more curious still. A
tall, bony native, standing bolt upright
upon the deck, served as a mast. while
the piece of coarse canvas which he
held up at full length in his out
stretched hands did duty for sail
This living mast was kept in its place
by Two other men, one OF whom clasped
it around the waist, while the other
held on its knees with all his might
and main.
TO use living rigging is not always q
proved very unsafe indeed. A sudden
gust of wind took the sail aback, and
the Arab who was serving rs mast for
it, and who had planted his feet upon
the two lower corners of the canvas,
in oruer to keep it stretched to its full
extent, found himself entangled in 1t
almost before he knew what had hap
pened. Losing his balance, he fell
backward, and rolled over the edge Of
the boat into the water, dragging along
with him one CT the two men who had
been holding him up.
The other man scrambled back into
the boat almost as quickly as he had
tumbled out oft; but the mast-man was
not SO lucky. IL took him two or three
seconds to get rid of the canvas that
was hampering him, and those two or
three seconds made all the difference.
boat had driited n good way down the
stream, the steersman having left his
post and run forward when he saw his
comrades fall overheard.
This OF itself would have mattered
little, for every Arab in the Nile valley
can swim like duck. But while the
struggling man was swimming with all
his might toward the boat and the
steersman was working the boats head
round to meet him, new actor sud-
deny appeared on the scene, whose
/ coming made the affair look much more
serious.
No one had taken any particular no.
tice of long black log which was ~
ing on the edge of n sand-bank a little
way out in the stream. But at the
splash made by the two Arabs rs they
/ plunged overheard, the seeming log
made sudden movement, displaying
! as it did so the vast, scaly bulk, grin
ming teeth, and small, cunning, cruel
/ eve of monstrous crocodile!
The hideous creature waddled down
into the river so clumsily that any one
who had been watching il would have
/ been startled by the arrow-like swift
ness of its course the moment it touched
the water The poor Arab knew only
| too well what was in store for him.
and made frantic efforts 10 reach the
| boat, which was now close Mt hand,
But the monster was too quick for MN.
| Gliding in between him and the ap-
preaching barge, it spun around sud
denly and darted right at him. opening
its terrible jaws wide enough 10 snow
two ranges of spiky teeth that migh'
| have crushed buffalo.
But lust as all seemed over, one OF
the ferrymen took flying leap from