38 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



fishy eyes slowly revolving in a last survey of the neigh- 

 bourhood. This done, he will heave his huge bulk and 

 serrated tail sideways out of the water, and lie extended 

 along the edge, ready to " whammle " in again on the 

 slightest alarm. You will aim at him in the centre of 

 the neck, just where it joins the head; and if you then 

 shoot plumb-centre, but not otherwise, he will never stir. 

 A difierent shot might eventually perhaps be fatal; but 

 this alone will prevent his reaching the water and escaping, 

 to float up in a day or two a sickening mass of corruption. 

 Nothing possesses such a frightful, " ancient fish-like 

 smell " as a crocodile that has been dead for even a few 

 hours. You can seldom get near enough to one of these 

 creatures in a boat to kill him with certainty; and the 

 only certain plans are to watch for them at noon as I 

 have described, or to bait with a noisy puppy dog in 

 the evening, at which time they appear to be most on 

 the feed. 



Eew things are more enjoyable than marching along 

 during the cold season in a rich open country like the 

 Narbada valley with a well-appointed camp, and plenty 

 of leisure to linger over the numerous objects of interest 

 or amusement presented by such a tract. Very little of 

 this sort of thing fell in the way of the forest officers 

 of those days, however. Our work lay in the depths of 

 distant forests, or at most in the half-reclaimed frontier 

 belt lying between the hills and the plains, where timber 

 transactions generally took place, and the chief depots 

 for forest produce had been established. When by chance 

 our direct route from forest to forest led across such an 

 open region, our movements were as rapid as man and 

 beast could make them; and at the earliest possible 

 moment we hurried again from the face of civilisation, 

 like ghosts at cock-crow, to bury ourselves again in the 

 depths of the wilderness. In after years, when employed 

 in revenue work in a populous district, I saw the reverse 

 of the picture. Marching by fair roads and easy stages 

 with a duplicate set of canvas houses (for such our large 

 Indian tents really are), one of which goes on over-night 

 and is pitched ready for your arrival in the morning, in 



