330 Mr. E. L. Layard*s Rambles in Ceylon. 



D. and B. went to set alligator-hooks in the little tank opposite the 

 house, and we then separated for the night. By daylight next 

 morning we were afoot again, and after the usual cup of coifee, we 

 three gentlemen adjourned to the tank with our guns. Out of six 

 hooks set, five were taken ; two floated in the centre of the tank, the 

 others had been dragged off into the jungle. Two of the natives waded 

 in and got hold of the floats (the hooks to which we found had been 

 taken by one alligator), and hauled them ashore. As the reptile came 

 to the grassy margin snapping his jaws, I fired a ball, 120 to the lb., 

 down his throat ; D. fired another weighing an ounce slantingly 

 through him, entering just behind the right shoulder ; B. fired a 

 second in the contrary direction ; both balls went through him ; and I 

 gave him a final salute, with a 60 to the lb. rifle, between the eyes : 

 still he appeared not to mind it, and bit furiously at everything. 

 Several heavy blows were then struck on his head : as he was im- 

 pervious to our boar-spears, and he lay as we thought dead, with his 

 mouth open, B. incautiously put his gun-stock into his mouth, when 

 with a snap he closed his formidable teeth on the hard wood, indenting 

 it most deeply. 



Alligators are cowardly brutes on land ; even in their more genial 

 element, when hooked they give no "play," as a salmon-fisher would 

 term it, but suffer themselves to be dragged tamely on shore and die 

 anything but game. It is said there are two species in the island ; 

 one, called by the Cingalese Minikana-Kimboola, by the Tamuls Sam- 

 mooken, has been thus described to me : — Throat and belly white, 

 nose red, back and tail dark green ; it grows to the length of 1 8 or 20 

 feet, and inhabits rivers, and the salt lake at Batticaloa. This is the 

 species that attacks men. The other and smaller kind, called Hale- 

 kimboola by the Cingalese, and Komodalle by the Tamuls, only resides 

 in tanks, and never attacks people : this species Dr. Templeton had 

 never seen; the former, in epistola, he terms C. biporcatus: not having 

 means at my disposal, I cannot identify them. The cervical plates of 

 the smaller species are placed thus : counting from the head, the 

 first row has four large plates, in pairs ; second row, six small ditto, in 

 triplets ; third row four, as in No. 2, but equidistant ; fourth row two 

 very large. 



Many instances are on record of the larger species carrying off 

 human victims ; one occurred many years ago at Matura, in the south 

 of the island. My father, when residing there, had a bungalow on the 

 banks of the river in which he was accustomed to dine. A party 

 assembled there one day for tiffin were startled by loud cries from 

 the water. My father remarked carelessly, for the benefit of some 

 Griffins, "Oh! it's only a black fellow taken off by an alligator," 

 when to the horror of all, the Appoo (head servant) rushed in 

 exclaiming, "Master, cook carried away by one alligator." Nets 

 were immediately procured, the river fished, and a huge alligator 

 captured, which on being opened was found to have two right hands in 

 his intestines. I often when a boy heard my father repeat this story ; 

 and a year or two ago, when on circuit with the Supreme court at Ma- 

 tura, I lived close to the spot. My wife took her chair and sat on the 



