62 The Rijle and Hound in Ceylon* 



bank, the immense form of a crocodile as he was slowly 

 rising from his hiding-place to the surface. He ap- 

 peared to be about eighteen feet long, and he projected 

 his horny head from the surface, bubbled, and then 

 floated with only his forehead and large eyes above the 

 water. He was a horrible-looking monster, and from 

 his size I hoped he was the villain that had committed 

 the late depredations. He was within three yards of 

 me ; and, although I stood upon the bank, his great 

 round eyes gazed at me without a symptom of fear. 

 The next moment I put a two-ounce ball exactly 

 between them and killed him stone dead. He gave a 

 convulsive slap with his tail, which made the water 

 foam, and, turning upon his back, he gradually sunk, 

 till at length I could only distinguish the long line of 

 his white belly twenty feet below me. 



Not having any apparatus for bringing him to the 

 surface, I again took to the canoe, as a light breeze 

 that had sprung up was gradually moving the carcass 

 of the buffalo away. This I slowly followed until it at 

 length rested in a wide belt of rushes which grew upon 

 the shallows near the shore. I pushed the canoe into 

 the rushes within four yards of the carcass, keeping to 

 windward to avoid the sickening smell. 



I had not been long in this position before the body 

 suddenly rolled over as though attacked by something 

 underneath the water, and the next moment the tall reeds 

 brushed against the sides of the canoe, being violently agi- 

 tated in a long line, evidently by a crocodile at the bottom. 



The native in the stern grew as pale as a black can 

 turn with fright, and instantly began to paddle the canoe 

 away. This, however, I soon replaced in its former 

 position, and then took his paddle away to prevent fur- 



