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In the same manner the larger kinds of serpents conceal themselves by day and wander forth at night, like all other reptiles except the smaller species of lizard, of which we have in Ceylon an immense variety, from the crocodile himself down to the little house-lizard.
It would seem almost hopeless to attempt to exterminate them by killing only the old ones. However, I fancy they have a good many enemies, and that a large number of the young do not grow up. As we were walking along the bank, we saw, close to the water, a young crocodile just making his way into it; and Mango, leaping down, captured the little creature.
The little wretch was so delighted with this feat, that he turned about a dozen somersaults, and then, for the amusement of the Giant and his friends, he changed the old sorceress successively into a lion, a pig, an old hen, a turtle, a kangaroo, a boa-constrictor, an ape, a lobster, a cat, a crocodile, and a crane.
The crocodile called it a "chance"; but he might as well have dragged me into the river at once. He said truly that I cannot escape him. 'Oh, if that is all, cried the princess, 'I can set you free myself, for my fairy godmother taught me to know the use of plants and in the desert not far from here there grows a little four-leaved herb which will keep the water in the pit for a whole year.
"Cooling of the air with sighs, In an odd angle of the Isle." Now to proceed with the deliberate intention of dragging by the ears into these pages a crocodile yarn. We have not a single "alligator" in Australia, our crocodiles being wrongly so called, but this perversity of nomenclature does not affect the anecdote.
You have read De Quincey?" he asked, with a sudden change of tone. "Yes." "Then read him again and you'll understand. I have all the horrors without any art. I have no 'Ladies of Sorrow, but I have worse monsters than his 'crocodile'." He laughed unpleasantly. Loder turned. "Why in the devil's name " he began; then again he halted. Something in Chilcote's drawn, excited face checked him.
The existing fauna shows us crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tortoises; but no connecting link between the crocodile and lizard, nor between the lizard and snake, nor between the snake and the crocodile, nor between any two of these groups. They are separated by absolute breaks.
How is the existence of this long succession of different species of crocodiles to be accounted for? Only two suppositions seem to be open to us Either each species of crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine.
A party is therefore organised to search all the neighbouring creeks, and the first measure taken is to prevent the guilty crocodile escaping to some other part of the river.
I have said to the astonishment of all that is not strictly correct. Guapo saw nothing to astonish him in that sight. He had witnessed a similar one many a time, and so does every one who travels either on the Amazon or the Orinoco. These flamingoes were perfectly safe, so far as the crocodile was concerned, and they knew it.
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