[This mode of attack (striking with the tail) is also one of the methods adopted by the Alligator of America for disabling its prey. A friend, on whose veracity I have much dependence, while shooting wild fowl on one of the tributaries of the Lower Mississippi, had the fortune to witness a fight between a Bear and an Alligator. He was called to the scene of the struggle by the noise made by the combatants, in the dry cane, that yielded to their pressure as they fought in each other's embrace. Several times both ceased only to recover breath and fresh energy; at length the Alligator missed striking the foe with its tail, Bruin seized the opportunity, and with all his efforts succeeded in turning the amphibian on its back, where he held him for some minutes, at the same time gnawing one of the fore-shoulders. A final struggle of the now worsted Alligator hurled both into the water, where they disappeared, the disturbed surface telling of the dreadful contest that was being prolonged beneath; after the lapse of over a minute the Bear came up, evidently much fatigued, and swam ashore, my friend forbearing to wound, or possibly kill, the gallant conqueror.] Crocodiles, it is said, which have never eaten human flesh, are much less dangerous than those that have acquired a taste for it. Mr. Combes states that he was assured by an inhabitant of Khartoum, who had reached the town with the Egyptian troops--that is to say, before the horrors committed by the Desterdar, acting with Mehemet Bey, who had been Governor of the Soudan some time before Mr. Combes's voyage--that the Crocodiles appeared to be quite indifferent to human flesh; but after the many executions by drowning ordered by Mehemet Bey, as he was told by a native whom he interrogated--"since the Nile has been loaded with the carcasses of my brethren"--the monsters which inhabit it have become habituated to substantial food, which they scarcely knew before: so that afterwards those swimming in the river, or even bathing on its banks, were exposed to imminent danger.