LIZARDS, CROCODILES, AND TORTOISES 329 



managed to secure a young crocodile, which they 

 had tethered up by a stout rope round its armpits, 

 and which they now presented to me with great 

 triumph. Acting on the good working theory that 

 it is unwise to refuse even undesirable offerings lest 

 the zeal for collecting should be checked, I accepted 

 the struggling, snapping captive with seeming rapture, 

 although neither wanting nor knowing well what to 

 do with him. The only resource seemed to be to 

 have him as soon as possible conveyed to the 

 Zoological Garden, but it did not appear very clear 

 how this was to be done. The men proposed to 

 fasten him down on the top of my brougham, but 

 as it was a blazing day in May, this would have 

 been cruel, if not actually murderous, and so, 

 although with some apprehension, I took him as a 

 fellow-passenger in the inside of it. However, by 

 dint of sitting with my feet up on the front seat, 

 and hitting him on the head with a stout stick 

 whenever he showed symptons of becoming lively, 

 I managed to make out the journey scatheless. 



Water- tortoises, Triongx, abound in the Hugli 

 and the countless channels and swamps communi- 

 cating with it, and specimens are also to be found 

 in many seemingly isolated garden-ponds. Their 

 appearance is far from inviting, owing to their dingy 

 colouring, extremely flattened form, and to the 

 presence of a layer of slime that usually coats their 

 surfaces, and which is often rendered additionally 



