THE "GHAKIAL." 319 



The " gharial," or slender-headed Gangetic crocodile, does 

 not affect brackish waters, and never descends so far as to 

 come within the influence of the tides, so far as I have 

 remarked ; and although it attains to twenty feet in length, 

 and even more, it is a harmless creature, attacking neither 

 man nor cattle. I recall only one instance of its attacking 

 man, and think it probable that it arose from a desire to 

 defend its nest of eggs in the sand. The knobs upon the 

 noses of the males being very much larger and more pro- 

 minent than those on females, the sex is clearly indi- 

 cated. 



As a proof of the great difference in the disposition and 

 general character of the broad and slender-headed species, in 

 other words the " muggers" and the " gharials," it may be 

 here remarked that if a stick or finger be held out to a young 

 one no matter how young or small of the former, it will 

 hiss and make a vicious snap, whereas the juvenile " gharial " 

 will meekly accept the attention, and will suffer its nose to 

 be tapped and its neck tickled without exhibiting anger or 

 dislike. 



To return to our ducks. I will venture to relate, at the 

 risk of proving tiresome, the incidents of a day's duck- 

 shooting on the " jheels," as an example of the sort of sport 

 to be expected under favourable conditions. 



The long chain of lagoons which lie parallel with the 

 left bank of the Muddoomuttee or Balasur river^ sometimes 

 approaching it closely and sometimes receding a league or 

 two, form together in the rainy season an immense expanse 

 of sweet water of great depth, but contracting in the dry 

 season, become wide and shallow "jheels," connected and 

 linked together by narrow channels, by which small boats 

 can traverse them from end to end of the entire chain. These 

 lagoons were, without doubt, the bed of a great river, possibly 

 one of the main arms of the Ganges itself, which, in the 

 present day, flows downwards towards the sea, east of the 

 station of Fareedpoor, thirty or forty miles away. A sparse 

 population, mostly Hindoos of low castes, build their huts 



