THE XARBADA A^ALLEY. 45 



mighty footprint in the white rock which is still exhibited 

 to the devout pilgrim. Several picturesque temples 

 dedicated to Siva crown the cliff on the right bank ; 

 and by the river's edge is a favourite ghCit for the 

 launching of the bodies of devout Hindus into the waters 

 of Mother Narbada. A pleasure party to the rocks is 

 apt to be not a little marred by a collision with one of 

 these unsavoury objects in mid-stream. In India many 

 a fair scene has its foul belongings and fell inhabitants ; 

 and these lovely waters are polluted by ghoul-like 

 turtles, monstrous fishes, and repulsive crocodiles, that 

 batten on the ghastly provender thus provided for them 

 by the pious Hindu. 



I believe the common il/«r/ar of the rivers and tanks 

 of the Central Provinces is identical with that of Upper 

 India {Crocodilus hiporcatus). The other species of 

 Indian crocodile [Gavialis Gangeticus), the long-nosed 

 Gavidl, is found in these provinces only in the Mahanadi 

 river, which falls into the Bay of Bengal. The long 

 still reaches of the Narbada all contain a goodly comple- 

 ment of broad-snouted magars ; but, so far as I have 

 observed, they do not attain in our rocky-bottomed 

 rivers nearly to the dimensions I have seen in the slimy 

 tributaries of the Ganges and Jamna. Eight or nine 

 feet in length I take to be here about the limit of the 

 magar's growth. Nor have I ever heard an authentic 

 case of an adult human being having been killed by a 

 crocodile in our rivers. Small animals are frequently 

 carried off, and children sometimes disappear from the 

 ghats in a suspicious manner. A dog employed in 

 retrievinoj wild fowl is almost certain to be sooner or 

 later made a meal of by the saurian. The fall of a duck 

 in his neighbourhood generally brings the reptile near 



