XXXIIL CROCODILES 



MR. E. STEWART, in a paper in the Contemporary 

 Review on crocodile-shooting, contributes much in- 

 teresting information as to the numbers and habits 

 of these creatures in India. The largest and most 

 dangerous to human life of the Indian species is the 

 salt-water crocodile of the estuaries (C. porosus). This 

 sometimes reaches thirty feet in length, and cruises for its 

 prey like a shark, occasionally swimming some distance 

 out to sea. But the creature with which Mr. Stewart 

 is mainly concerned is the marsh crocodile, the ' mugger ' 

 of the inland rivers. Its numbers are very great, and 

 do not diminish. On one small river, the Tiljooga in 

 Tirhoot, a stream not more than ten or twelve yards 

 broad, but very deep, crocodiles might be seen every 

 sixty yards, singly or in groups, which took toll of 

 men, dogs, and cattle, as well as fish. What a curse 

 they are to the inhabitants of the riverine districts may 

 be gathered from the fact that the village watering- 

 places have to be palisaded to keep these creatures out, 



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