84 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



Hack Handicap, and King David turned the tables on his con- 

 queror of the previous day, by beating Seagull at a difference 

 of ist. jibs, in the Galloway Handicap. The meeting ending 

 with the memorable match between Ferdy Shaw and Tom 

 Fraser, Harry Abbott would have steered Sultan himself, but 

 for the fact that just before the meeting, he had been experi- 

 menting on a mount which proved harder to ride than the pull- 

 ing Cabuli. The following account of it, sent to the Civil and 

 Military, may act as a salutary deterrent to other equally 

 crack brained youths, who fancy they can ride saurians with 

 impunity. In the words of an eye-witness : 



" It was in the rains, and we were up at Tewarreh Factory 

 vats, when the jemadar told us that there was a huge alligator 

 under the bridge of the river. Sending for a gun and a couple 

 of bullets we went up to the bridge, and, sure enough, about 

 twenty yards off, there was an enormous ' ghurial ' some 

 twenty feet long, with his head just visible above the water. A 

 well-directed shot caught him between the eyes ; and the brute 

 mortally wounded, plunged into deep water, rolling over and 

 over, and was carried by the tide down towards the bungalow, 

 which was some quarter of a mile off. Running to the vat-house, 

 Abbott seized a long rope lying there, rapidly made a slip- 

 knot in it ; and declaring that he was not going to lose so 

 lovely a skin, kicked off his boots, and just as he was in 

 socks, breeches and shirt jumped into the river, giving me 

 and a lot of natives the other end of the rope to hold. He got 

 well into the middle of the stream and was quietly treading 

 water while we were all anxiously watching, when suddenly, 

 within two feet of him, the alligator plunged straight up 

 out of the water, snout foremost, as alligators generally do 

 when hit in the head. Without the least hesitation Abbott 

 flung both arms right round the snout, and a regular rough-and- 

 tumble ensued, I yelling to him at the top of my voice to drop 

 it. Presently the brute's whole body appeared, and Abbott 



