252 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



of the bullet exactly where the neck joins the body to 

 kill a specimen. If hit anywhere in the body, they simply 

 glide off into the stream and are seen no more. Having 

 watched some time for a very large one, he was success- 

 fully plugged with a hardened bullet in the neck, and the 

 spine paralyzed. Elephants were sent out with strong 

 ropes to tug the monster to land, and other elephants 

 hauled him up the steep bank. He measured 22 feet in 

 length, and his skin made a fine piece of leather. The 

 gavial is a very harmless beast and will not attack a man. 

 But the ' muggur ' preys upon every live beast he can 

 catch and pull down, and will crunch and swallow in 

 his great maw any animal. In the sluggish deep waters 

 of the tributaries of the Rapti and Gumti near Gorakhpur 

 muggurs chiefly abound. In fact, even close to Gorakh- 

 pur there were a great many. A retriever dog fetching 

 wild fowl from the ponds and pools was almost certain 

 to be taken down if swimming in a deep place, and 

 valuable dogs were thus lost. Native children and calves 

 and goats were commonly seized and dragged in, and all 

 dead bodies of Hindus thrown into the river were simply 

 devoured by the muggurs. In cholera times, when the 

 pilgrims are returning from the great annual mela, or fair, 

 and the poor sick people are brought to the water's edge 

 in hundreds, ready to be thrown in when they die, the 

 muggurs have fine times and grow fat. 



The regular work consisted in dividing the forest into 

 divisions according to a ' working plan,' the ground to be 

 worked over in a certain number of years. The forest 

 was already full of sal-trees, but many of them had been 

 spoilt by tapping for gum, called ral, and only the worst 

 crooked stems remained after the good trees had been cut. 

 There were, however, plenty of seedlings on the ground, 

 and it was decided first of all to thin out all the bad stems 



