72 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



overland and to cross a metalled cart-road would afford 

 but little difficulty. It is easy to see how it is done, 

 but who can say why it is done ? Why should a 

 crocodile leave a river stocked with food, and explore 

 an utterly unsuitable tributary for miles and then 

 wander inland until it strikes a pool ? All that one 

 can say is, that it does ; and rumour had it that three 

 of these brutes had found their way into the lake. So 

 long as they confined their attention to the fish, and 

 perhaps an occasional duck, no one objected to their 

 presence; but when one of them began to take the 

 sheep off the bank as they came down to drink, and 

 had even gone so far as to make an attempt on a cow, 

 it was felt that the brutes ought to be exterminated. 

 When children and ayahs were playing at the water's 

 edge anything might happen. The crocodiles never 

 came up to sleep on the bank in the heat of the day, 

 for they had not yet so far made themselves at home 

 as to dare to expose themselves to the public gaze. 

 There was therefore no chance of shooting them, and 

 so I sent for Manap. 



When the baits were all ready Manap and I went 

 down to the lake and pushed off in a Malay dug-out to 

 reconnoitre. The lake was fairly shallow toward the 

 sides, but in the centre there were some very deep old 

 mine-holes, and to approach these pools, which were 

 almost certainly where the crocodiles were to be found, 

 one had to pass by one or another of the islands. We 

 decided to leave a baited line at each entrance between 

 the islands, and Manap proceeded to unwind one of 

 the coils of rattan, and straitened out the curves in it 

 until it followed the canoe, floating on the top of the 



