THE NARBADA valley. 47 



of his siestca with immense caution. Loni,^ and keenly 

 he reconnoitres it from a distance ; and if he has any 

 suspicious he will sink and rise again and again during 

 his approach. If not he will descend after the first 

 good look, and then swim right in under water ; and 

 the next thing you will see of him will be his rugged 

 head lying on the ledge of rock below you, and a pair of 

 fishy eyes slowly revolving in a last survey of the neigh- 

 bourhood. This done, he will heave his huge bulk and 

 serrated tail sideways out of the water, and lie extended 

 along the edge, ready to " whammle" in again on the 

 slis^htest alarm. You will aim at him in the centre of 

 the neck, just where it joins the head ; and if you then 

 shoot plumb-centre, but not otherwise, he will never 

 stir. A different shot might eventually perhaps be 

 fatal ; but this alone will prevent his reaching the water 

 and escaping, to float up in a day or two a sickening 

 mass of corruption. Nothing possesses such a frightful, 

 " ancient fish-like smell " as a crocodile that has been 

 ■dead for even a few hours. You can seldom g:et near 

 enough to one of these creatures in a boat to kill him 

 wdth certainty ; and the only certain plans are to watch 

 for them at noon as I have described, or to bait with a 

 noisy puppy dog in the evening, at which time they 

 appear to be most on the feed. 



Few things are more enjoyable than marching along 

 during the cold season in a rich open country like the 

 Narbada valley with a well-appointed camp, and plenty 

 of leisure to linger over the numerous objects of interest 

 or amusement presented by such a tract. Very little of 

 this sort of thing fell in the way of the forest officers 

 of those days, however. Our work lay in the depths of 

 distant forests, or at most in the half-reclaimed frontier 



