MISCELLANEOUS. 229 



9 feet 8 inches long. The upper jaw is perforated by two 

 holes, through which the canine teeth of the lower jaw 

 enter, the ends appearing above the snout. The victim is 

 seized by an arm or leg, and the alligator being dovetailed 

 to it by this arrangement, has simply to use his weight to 

 drown it, and can then devour it piecemeal at his leisure. 

 On one occasion, having returned from a long day's beating 

 for a tiger in the Sacrabyle jungles in Western Mysore, I 

 strolled up the Eiver Toonga for a dip, and, leaving my 

 rifle and clothes on the bank, walked through some shallow 

 water to a deep pool in the middle of the river. I was 

 luxuriating in this, when the peon from the Travellers' 

 Bungalow came running down, shouting, " Master, please 

 come back ; plenty big mugger got it." I lost no time 

 getting into shallow water again, and before reaching the 

 bank saw the log-like form of a huge mugger in the very 

 spot I had been bathing not a minute previously. If he 

 had meant business he could easily have seized me. Before 

 my rifle could be reached he disappeared. The peon told 

 me that this mugger had drowned a water buffalo a few 

 weeks before my arrival by dovetailing on to its nose when 

 it was drinking, and as he adhered to this story, in spite of 

 a severe cross-examination, and had nothing to gain by tell- 

 ing a falsehood, I believed his statement to be a true one. 



The day after the death of the Nurseepoor alligator, 

 Colonel Pearse, Mr. Davy, and I, went to see Tulkaad 

 village eight miles distant on the left bank of the 

 Cauvery. We waded across this river near a bend, where 

 an immense accumulation of sand has been formed. 

 During certain winds this sand is carried towards the 

 village, which is gradually becoming submerged by these 

 deposits. The sand drifts had already blocked three of the 

 largest streets, and the tops of some full-grown Palmyra 



