42 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



a collision with one of these unsavoury objects in mid-stream. 

 In India many a fair scene has its foul belongings and fell 

 inhabitants ; and these lovely waters are polluted by ghoul- 

 like turtles, monstrous fishes, and repulsive crocodiles, that 

 batten on the ghastly provender thus provided for them by 

 the pious Hindii. 



I believe the common Magar of the rivers and tanks of 

 the Central Provinces is identical with that of Upper India 

 (Crocodilus biporcatus). The other species of Indian croco- 

 dile (Gavialis Gangeticus), the long-nosed Gavidl, is found 

 in these provinces only in the Mahanadi river, which falls into 

 the Bay of Bengal. The long still reaches of the Narbadd all 

 contain a goodly complement of broad-snouted magars ; but, 

 so far as I have observed, they do not attain in our rocky- 

 bottomed rivers nearly to the dimensions I have seen in the 

 slimy tributaries of the Ganges and Jamna\ Eight or nine feet 

 in length I take to be here about the limit of themagar's growth. 

 Nor have I ever heard an authentic case of an adult human 

 being having been killed by a crocodile in our rivers. Small 

 animals are frequently carried off, and children sometimes 

 disappear from the ghats in a suspicious manner. A dog 

 employed in retrieving wild fowl is almost certain to be sooner 

 or later made a meal of by the saurian. The fall of a duck 

 in his neighbourhood generally brings the reptile near the 

 spot ; and many a shot bird thus disappears, as if by magic, 

 before the eyes of the gunner. But he will prefer your plump 

 retriever, should he see him nearing the duck as he comes up. 

 A dear old spaniel of mine named " Quail," possessed of an 

 uncontrollable " craze after the deuks," had so many narrow 

 escapes of this sort that I never taught any of the four gene- 

 rations of his descendants I have possessed to retrieve from 

 water. 



