MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 29 
4 
No. XX VIII.—CROCODILE SHOOTING IN NEPAL. 
We were floating down the Gunduk between Nollpur, in Nepal, north of the 
first sandstone range and Tirebani, the head-works of the Ramnuger-Tirebani 
canal, trying to shoot a few of the hundreds of crocodiles that lay basking in the 
sun on the edge of the stream. The banks all along this part of the river are 
rather steep and even if a mugger is shot dead, the weight of his body carries 
him in and he is gone. We lost several in this way, one was particularly aggra- 
vating. We had spotted a gharial (yavialis gangeticus) lying on rather a flat 
sandy bank, some 200 or 300 yards down stream, so I waited till we had floated 
to within a 100 yards or so and could get a broadside shot, then I fired and 
hit him in the head. Ithought I had surely got him this time as he lay quite 
still, then just as we got the boat close to where he lay, he struggled into the 
river turning as he reached the water on his back with the lower half of his jaw 
sticking out of the water. Then he started to swim straight across the river 
to the opposite shore on his back. I fired several shots at him in the hopes 
that he might stop, when he could be roped. He had reached about mid- 
stream still on his back when he suddenly dived and we saw him no more. 
I suppose he floated up a few days later to provide a meal for the Tarus, who 
greatly appreciate crocodile flesh, which is white, not unlike cod to look at, 
though rather tough I should imagine. 
There were both gharials and muggers (C. palustris) all the way down the 
river, though chiefly gharials which seemed to prefer lying together in shoals 
while the muggers were in ones or twos. 
The natives are very much afraid of them and even when dead it requires a 
lot of persuasion to make them touch one. I shot quite a small mugger in a ta/ 
in the Kheri district-—its neck was broken and it was dead, but muscular action 
made it open and shut its eyelids and none of the natives would touch it, till 
our orderly bravely got down off his elephant, and after thoroughly kicking it 
and satisfying himself that it was dead, picked it up at arms length ; then one 
or two others plucked up courage and rather gingerly helped him to load it on 
an elephant. The mahout was in a fearful state of nerves and paid far mere 
attention to what the dead mugger might do than to where his elephant was 
going. The crocodile certainly did open its eyes once or twice and even after it 
was skinned some muscles moved and its heart appeared to bo still beating. 
We watched some fishermen working on the Gunduk one day. They chose 
a likely looking pool in the river, then quickly rowing up stream to start with, 
they ringed the pool paying out, as they went, a net weighted along one edge and 
floats attached to the other, then wading waist deep into the river they started 
hauling itin. Asit was drawn nearer and nearer in, a sudden swirl on the surface 
of the water and a glint of silver betrayed the presence of at least one fish. In 
that particular catch there was only one, quite a good mahseer about 10 lbs. 
Most of the small rivers and streams in Nepal are trapped to such an extent 
that there are few fish left. The Tarus build stone dams right across the stream 
. forcing all the water through narrow channels, at the end of which are wicker- 
work cages in which the fish get caught. 
I. A. K. 
No. XXIX.—AN AGGRESSIVE PHOORSA (ECHIS CARINAT A). 
In mid-June walking across an open maidan near St. Thomas’ Mount in the 
dusk, my wife and dog walked right over an Echis. They, at least my wife 
was alarmed by the “ sandpaper noise ’’ jumped clear and called to me. I found 
the snake furiously angry, lashing out and scrubbing his sides together. I wanted 
to catch him, but had nothing but a thick, and for such work, clumsy walking 
stick. While I was hesitating the snake made towards me giving a great 
exhibition of frightfulness. He came slowly, his action having a scrambling 
