42 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



at them as the animal reached the water. Twice they plucked up 

 the courage to take hold of the long, scaly tail, but as it gave a slight 

 twitch they di*opped it. I fired another shot, but my rifle seemed 

 quite bewitched, and that splendid reptile crawled slowly away be- 

 fore my eyes, in spite of all I could do or say. One man could easily 

 have stopped it, but I did not care to swim across the strip of 

 water that lay between the end of the sand-bar and the bank. As 

 the gavial reached deej)er water it turned belly up, kicked its legs 

 feebly in the air, and slowly drifted down to where no one dared 

 follow. The water was so miirky we could not see an object three 

 inches below the surface. 



And so we lost that fine ten-foot gavial. I was disgusted with 

 myself for my miserably poor shooting, and vexed with the men for 

 their timidity, which lost the game. In a few words I shamed them 

 for their cowardice, and pointed out how the reptile was too nearly 

 dead to bite any one. I told them that if any one of them should ever 

 be bitten by a gavial, I would send him to the hospital and pay him 

 double wages until he should get well, and that if any one should 

 be di-owned while ti-ying to catch one for me, I would give his 

 widow a hundred rupees. This harangue had a wonderful effect 

 upon them. 



The next morning we all began to do better work. We found 

 a large gavial lying upon an isolated sand-bar out almost in the 

 middle of the river, and from the top of the bank I put a bullet 

 into its back-bone just at the shoiilders. Its jaws flew wide open 

 and its legs drew up, but otherwise it lay perfectly stilL To my 

 great surprise three of the boatmen immediately sprang into the 

 water and started to swim across to the sand-bar. There was no 

 teUing how many gavials lay right under them, but I quickly made 

 up my mind I could risk it as well as they, and taking only my hvmt- 

 ing knife in my belt, swam after them. 



The gavial was powerless to move, but as we approached, it 

 snapped viciously from side to side in a manner which warned us 

 to be careful We immediately seized it by the tail, and reaching 

 from behind I stabbed it to the heart with my hunting-knife, which 

 soon ended its struggles. This specimen measured exactly eleven 

 feet. The boat was brought down, and we hauled aboard the car- 

 cass of " Number One." 



We had still better luck that day. A mile below our first cap- 

 ture we found seven fine gavials lying at the edge of a broad 

 sand-bank, which extended along the shore. I posted the men 



