INDIAN SHOOTING 239 



a chain to a good long rope, the end of which is firmly picketed, 

 the rope being coiled and the bait laid in shallow water. 

 There must be lots of slack line, as the crocodile does not 

 swallow anything at once, but seizes it and takes it into deep 

 water to gorge, A number of lines may be laid and looked 

 up in the morning or cool of the evening. When hooked it 

 will take a good many men to haul a crocodile out, and as he 

 resents the operation and can use his tail as well as his jaws, 

 one or two sportsmen will find considerable entertainment in 

 despatching him with spears. Some crocodiles grow to an 

 enormous size, and their maws always contain round white 



Landing a ghayal 



stones, and often trinkets, the relics of inside passengers. The 

 writer assisted at the death of a not extraordinarily large ' snub- 

 nose,' which had six women's rings in her. This beast was a 

 female, and full of eggs. Another plan worth trying is to tie 

 up a kid in the evening as a bait, just sufficiently far from the 

 water to attract the crocodiles by its bleating on to dry land, 

 so that the sportsman, lying well hidden about sixty yards off, 

 should be able to make sure of shooting them through the 

 back of the head. 



Measurements. British Museum : a snub-nose, 17 ft. 4 ins. ; a 

 long-nose, 15 ft. i in. 



