CHAP. xxv. Crocodiles and Alligators. 347 



bamboo getting hitched amongst bushes. As far as my experience 

 goes they always take to the land eventually. 



I have been told that good fun can be had out of the crocodile by 

 baiting as above in the daytime, and setting a man to watch from 

 a distance in concealment. The man must be very still, and well 

 concealed, and at a distance, or not a crocodile will be hooked, for 

 they are very wary. Directly one is hooked he gives the information. 

 Then into small boats quick, one man in each prow with a hog spear, 

 start fair, and "ride" or "off" for first spear. As he sees the boats 

 coming, down goes the crocodile, and up stands the bamboo, more 

 and more upright the deeper he goes, so that the more he tries to 

 avoid you, the more conspicuous becomes his course. Follow him up, 

 for if the bamboo is a big one, as it should be, it will be so strongly 

 buoyant that he must come to the top soon. There, now, the bamboo 

 is beginning to slope, showing that he is coming to the surface. Now 

 is your time for a spear. But look out for his tail it is very powerful. 

 If he upsets you, he has big brothers about, and they may reverse the 

 sport. 



What is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator ? 

 Sir J. Emerson Tennent, in his interesting sketches of the Natural 

 History of Ceylon, makes it clear enough : 



" The Portuguese in India, like the Spaniards in South America, affixed 

 their name of lagarto to the huge reptiles that infested the rivers and 

 estuaries of both continents ; and to the present day the Europeans in 

 Ceylon apply the term alligator to what are in reality crocodiles, which 

 literally swarm in the still waters and tanks in the low country, but rarely 

 frequent rapid streams, and have never been found in the marshes among 

 the hills. The differences, however, between the two, when once ascer- 

 tained, are sufficiently marked, to prevent their being afterwards confounded. 

 The head of the alligator is broader, and the snout less prolonged, and 

 the canine teeth of the under jaw, instead of being received into foramina 

 in the upper, as in the crocodile, fit into furrows on each side of it. The 

 legs of the alligator, too, are not denticulated, and the feet are only 

 semipalmate." 



The Gangetic Garial has a lengthened beak which marks him 

 unmistakably. I have adopted the modern spelling of the ' Royal 

 Natural History.' 



" Probably owing to a clerical error on the part of its first describer 

 the slender-snouted crocodile known in India by the vernacular name 



