326 Fishing Gear and Other Small Beer. CHAP. xxi. 



two legs extends the base, or, in other words, that the fly which is 

 further off, from being at the surface, is visible over a greater breadth of 

 bottom, than the fly which, from being sunk, is nearer the bottom. 



An objection to wading is said to be that you are now and then 

 swallowed by a crocodile. But I have not experienced that sensation 

 yet, and though there are crocodiles enough, I do not think there is 

 really anything to be feared from them. I have again and again waded 

 in just where I have seen a crocodile disappear, or have noticed fresh 

 footmarks and basking places. Mr. Sanderson, in his " Thirteen Years 

 among the Wild Beasts of India," writes the following : 



" The few crocodiles that are found in the Mysore rivers very rarely 

 attack people ; and fishermen who pay no heed to them have told me 

 that, if they come upon a crocodile whilst following their employment, it 

 will skulk at the bottom, and not move though handled, apparently believing 

 it escapes observation. Crocodiles are, like all wild creatures, very timid 

 where not encouraged, as is sometimes done by superstitious natives. In- 

 credible though it may seem to readers with no knowledge of the saurian s 

 but that derived from stories of their boldness elsewhere, I may instance 

 having seen several ' bestas ' (the professional boatmen, divers, and fisher- 

 men of Mysore) dive time after time into water 1 2 feet deep, and bring to 

 the surface by the tail a crocodile 7 feet long which I had wounded. The 

 creature was not in any way crippled, but seemed overcome with fear. It 

 offered no resistance till dragged near a rock, where I stood with a rope, 

 when it would turn and snap at the man pulling it, always sinking, however, 

 the moment this demonstration made him let go its tail. Different divers 

 went down successively, one at a time, and brought it to the surface. I at 

 last killed it with a charge of shot." 



Still it was reported that they killed women and children groping for 

 shellfish in the Malabar district, and it was on that ground that the 

 Government of Madras sanctioned a reward for killing them in the 

 Malabar district, at so much a yard, and the result was that seven miles 

 of them were killed in a very short time, when the reward was stopped. 



Seven miles of crocodile ! It reminds one of Sheridan's sympathising 

 remark on the giraffe with a cold in the Zoo : " Fancy having three 

 yards of sore throat." 



An acquaintance of mine was stripping for a swim in a tempting 

 looking pool, his native attendant silently watching him all unconcerned 

 till he eventually dropped the casual remark : " There are about thirty 

 of them in that pool." "Thirty what?" asked the white man. 



