The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-17

writer's for the crocodile being wor-
Saiped in Egypt was the somewhat
cryptic one that it laid lhreescore
eggs aud lived for threescore years.
bat from twenty to thirty is the COM
mon number OF eggs found In a
sclutch." In the reptiles easy code
of ethics, however. its parental re-
sponsibilities end with tie act Of owl
position. FOR having covered the eggs
with a layer OF sand it lea"es the sur
to do the rest (whence doubtless
Shakespeare'S your mud and the OPP
Grafton Of your SUM- and leaves 1t
also 10 the ichneumon to do its worst
In some places it seems that water
tortoises, TOO, a crocodiles' eggs;
but the ichneumon is the cal desc
lator of crocodile homes, ~scatchlng
I'D the nests and eating or breaking
the entire sitting" at a meal. Croc-
odiles' eggs, however. are absurdly
small, a mother twenty feet long be-
ing content with an egg no larger
than that Of a goose, and the newly
Matched youug. hardly more formida-
BILE than a common newt, are prey'i
upon by birds, which a little lareT -"
rapidly growing crocodile would -
nothing better than to get With >
reach, as we'll as doubtless by n2a!%
other things, including old crocoG:.. ;
themselves.
The real horror of the members c.
the crocodile tribe lies in their usual
noiselessness. "They swim with great
silence, making scarcely even a ripple
on the water" says M. Du Chaillu,
and the terror of the stealth of their
approach is well conveyed in Mr..
Rudyard Kipling's Ripple Song"
Wait. an! wait" the ripple saith;
Maiden, wait, for I am DEATH"
The first sight Of an alligator or
crocodile, however large, summing it
self on a mudbank and pretending to
be a stranded log is usually disap-
pointing, and if it is lying with its
mouth open, as in the sunshine they
all love to do Wherefore. seeing them
remaining so immovably in what
looks like so strained an attitude,
many visitors to the gardens go away
declaring that the crocodiles are
stuffed). it becomes almost absurd.
But when you have come upon n
Unexpectedly with its head and fore
quarters out of the water, and have
seen it, slide noiselessly back until it
disappears, and then even while you
,f,ll -,o&oh Tho n1ono uthoro n VOW
ished, not a movement having so
much as made the surface Of the
water quake, the hideous thing sud-
denly, still in complete silence,
thrusts itself out upon the bank nan
yards Gway-it may be further OFF
or nearer to you-to lie a mere snag
at the waters edge. waiting for what
ever may come within its reach,
whether you or another, the dread
fitness Of the thing is very chilling.
Sir Samuel Baker tells of the cum
ming of crocodiles which advance at
an animal without any concealment
and then, as If in disgust at their
failure, turn and swim away, still in
sight, only at last to sink below the
surface and returning without a
rippleyto betray them rise Immediately
below, the quarry, which has by this
time returned to drink in fancied
security. BY this trick he saw them
again and again catch birds which
settled on branches overhanging the
water. The chief food Of most mem
bers of the family, and probably the
entire food of some, is fish; but now
that we know that a full grown
rhinoceros can be pulled into the
water and killed by a crocodile we
may believe that few living things
do not at one time or another fall
victims to them. Horses, oxen, buff
faloes, boars, mules and camels" is a
list which n writer gives of animals
which are known to have been eaten
by ~crocodiles in Egypt. In South
America jaguars and tapirs have been
seen being seized, pulled into deep
water and drowned; while as for
man, consider the Mugger of Mugger
Ghaut in Mr.. Kipling's grewsome tale,
The Undertakers."
ACCORDING TO OLD writers the 1ch-
neumon. besides eating ~crocodiles'
eggs, would run into the full grown
animals open mouth and s. down its
throat. whence. after revealing for a
while amid Leyiathan's ritals, 1t ate
its way out of the dead carcass VIC
toriously to daylight. The hydra"
it seems, did the same. But the dol
phin's method was the more artistic,
for being provided with a knife edged
dorsal fin it swan underneath "the
encased c%rocodiles" and sliced clean
open the soft, unprotected parts be-
low.
in real life. however, The large
%crocodilia have probably no enemy
but man, and even man without mod
ern firearms was nearly helpless
against them.
THE sword Of him that layeth at
him cannot hold; the spear. the dart
nor the habergeon."
~Canst thou draw out Leviathan
with any hook" asks the sacred
writer. Herodotus says that in his
day they could use a pig for bait. In
India we know that they have been