The Naturalist in India 299 



interest of the scene was to us as great as ever. From beneath a little banyan- 

 tree on the verge of the pond, the spectacle, during the steaming heat of a mid- 

 day sun, might call up to the mind of the geologist the eons of the world, when 

 the ' great monsters ' wallowed in the seething waters of the oolitic ages, when 

 the mighty ' Ichthyosaurus,' and a host of ' fearfully great lizards,' dragons, &c., 

 reigned supreme over sea and land. And as the date-palm now waves its shady 

 boughs over the crocodiles of Mugger-peer, so then did the magnificent tree- 

 ferns, gigantic reeds, and club-mosses, shelter their extinct predecessors. 



' ' The greater pond is about 300 yards in circumference, and contains many 

 little grassy islands, on which the majority of the crocodiles were then basking ; 

 some were asleep on its slimy sides, others half-submerged in the muddy water, 

 while now and then a huge monster would raise himself upon his diminutive 

 legs, and waddling for a few paces, fall flat on his belly. Young ones, from a 

 foot in length and upwards, ran nimbly along the margin of the pond, dis- 

 appearing suddenly in the turbid waters as soon as we approached. The 

 largest crocodile lives in a long narrow tank, separate from the others. The 

 Fakirs, and natives who worship in the neighbouring temples, have painted his 

 forehead red ; they venerate the old monster, making a salaam to his majesty 

 whenever he shows himself above water. A handsome young Beloochee, whose 

 occupation it was to feed the animals, informed us that the said king was 

 upwards of two hundred years old ! (?) and that, by way of a 'tit-bit,' he was 

 in the habit of devouring the young crocodiles. During our visit, this enormous 

 brute was asleep on the banks of his dwelling-place, and seemed quite indifferent 

 to our presence, although we came within a foot of him, and even attempted to 

 arouse him, by rubbing his nose with a leg of goat's flesh, which, however, a 

 young one greedily seized, and dived under water. Our attendant tried in vain 

 to excite their ferocity, but beyond a feeble attempt to snap their trenchant 

 teeth, the animals shewed no disposition to attack us. 



" A pony was wading about in the pond, and feeding on the gi-assy hillocks, 

 but the crocodiles took no notice of him. 



" The water in the pond felt cold, although fed from two hot springs, one of 

 which was of so high a temperature that I could not retain my hand in it ; yet 

 animal life existed, for I found where the water bubbled up from its sandy 

 bottom, and in the little lade running to the tank, abundance of a small species 

 of small black spiral shell, which Mr Woodward informed me is ' very like 

 some in the British Museum, named Melauia pyramis, an allied species of which 

 frequents the river Jordan.'* 



" The other spring gushes from under a bed of limestone, containing numbers 

 of fossils, chiefly coral, and other marine zoophites. We had a refreshing 

 bathe in a reservoir close by ; the temperature, though not so high as the last, 

 was still warm and pleasant. I should be sorry, however, to repeat the 

 experiment, not from the chances of meeting with a crocodile (for, I believe, 

 the Fakirs of the temple guard well against such accidents), but from the 

 circumstance that (as is generally the case all over the East) lepers and persons 

 affected with loathsome diseases repair to such localities. 



" The crocodiles dig deep in the sand, under the neighbouring date-trees, and 



The temperature of the water in the lade was 127° Fahr. 



