176 QUEER ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE. 



its body into the soft mud among the roots of the flags, leav- 

 ing only its tail visible, when a bright idea suggested itself to 

 one of the Goorkhas who were with us. Thinking the animal 

 was dead, or nearly so, he proposed that he should fasten a 

 rope to its tail, and then make one of the elephants haul it 

 out. He accordingly proceeded to carry out his plan, which 

 was more easily conceived than executed, for on his at- 

 tempting to slip a noose over the tail, the creature gave it a 

 violent and an unexpected wag, which somewhat disconcerted 

 his arrangements and startled him considerably. At length, 

 however, after repeated failures, which elicited many jocular 

 remarks from his comrades, he succeeded in making fast the 

 noose. Having tied the other end of the rope to one of the 

 elephant's pads, we gave the word to pull, when away went 

 the elephant, dragging after it the saurian, which now, hav- 

 ing seemingly recovered its wits, was struggling frantically, 

 and making abortive attempts to turn round and seize the 

 rope between the well-armed jaws it kept snapping together 

 with a loud noise. The creature was hauled on to an open 

 spot, and finished with a bullet through the head. It was 

 one of the "muggur" or broad - snouted kind (Crocodilus 

 palustris), and measured 7 or 8 feet long. 



Pythons of very large size were sometimes met with in 

 these jungles, and I have myself shot several, one of which 

 measured over 21 feet in length, and in girth about 2 feet. 

 For the benefit of such as are fond of the marvellous, I shall 

 venture to here recapitulate the strange circumstances at- 

 tending the slaying of this huge reptile, as contributed by me 

 years ago to the ' Oriental Sporting Magazine/ But those 

 who, from their inexperience of wild-jungle life, are always 

 inclined to be sceptical regarding " travellers' tales," had better 

 skip the rest of this chapter, for I warn them that the un- 

 varnished facts it contains will almost require the powers of 

 deglutition of the creature in question to swallow. Never- 

 theless they occurred exactly as follows. 



