Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1894 — An African Pest. [ARTICLE]

An African Pest.

With regard to the utility 'of the crocodile there are diverse opinions. It is certainly a scavenger, though when the rapid currents of most rivers a:e taken into consideration the importance of his mission dwindles. The author of “In the Morambala Marsh” says that along the banks of African streams it is dangerous to approach the river edge. Water for domestic purposes is obtained from the top of the banks by means of a cup attached to a bamboo pole twenty or thirty feet in length and in spite of all these precautions the death roll is a most ghastly one. The primitive dugouts used by tho natives for traveling on the rivers are in many cases merely death-traps. While the man is paddling along, barely two inches above the surface of the river, the crocodile seizes his hand and drags hi;* to the bottom. On one occasion I sent down some letters by a Hindoo merchant and a few weeks later heard that both letters and postman had been devoured by crocodiles. At another time I was strolling along the bank, and hearing cries, arrived at tho water’s edge in time to seize a boy whose leg bad been caught by one of these brutes and torn from him. He escaped with his life, thanks to my timely arrival. In some places one sees thousands of crocodiles on a mud bank, most of them scarcely two inches in length, evidently just hatched. A week does not pass but in some river village wails and lamentations are heard for a fresh victim to' the crocodile s insatiable appetite.