84 THE ROYAL TIGER OF BENGAL. 



ance on its surface, and quietly disappear when they 

 perceive the strange otjeots on the banks. The 

 edges of the swamp are covered with long and dense 

 grass and trees; on the left-hand side, where we 

 approached it, the forest itself is dense and magnifi- 

 cent, the branches of the trees overhanging the 

 gloomy, treacherous-looking water below, and the 

 thick grass and tangled low jungle which encroaches 

 equally on both forest and water. 



"This cover is a favourite haunt of tigers, 

 pythons, and alligators. B., who was on the forest 

 side, shot a large python, that glided quietly 

 away with a buUet through his sinuous body, into 

 the shelter of some impenetrable jungle, just as I 

 fired at a large alligator which was lying quietly 

 on the surface of the water, with the end of his 

 nose and eyes only appearing above the surface. 

 The ball struck him in the head, and he quietly 

 sunk to the bottom, a few bubbles of air slowly rising 

 to the surface, only remaining to indicate where he 

 had been. 



" We had a liae of twenty-four elephants to-day ; 

 the rajah was with us, and had with him four or 

 five of his own. We divided the elephants into 

 two divisions, one half with B. and the rajah on 

 the forest side, the other half with H. D. and myself 

 on the other. We had not proceeded far before 

 a number of Lungoor monkeys (entellus), which 

 were bounding about in the trees on B.'s side, sud- 

 denly began to screech and spring violently forward, 



