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TIIE TFCEr's PAKTL-vrJTV TO PUTRID FLESH. I 77 
in the Soonderbuns, I observed a rather large sized crocodile 
(our so-called alligator), and having succeeded in getting 
within a couple of hundred yards or so of him, I managed 
to place a ball from my rille into his neck, which turned 
him over; another leaden bolus lodged exactly behind his 
shoulder, gave him his coup de grace, and enabled me effec- 
tually to secure him. As I was journeying to a location, 
which was not far from there, and as the skull and skin of 
' the monster of the deep ' was well worth preserving, being 
about seventeen feet in lengthj I attached a stout coir rope 
round its neck, and towed it on. 1 arrived at my destination 
rather late in the afternoon, and hauled the carcass on shore, 
leaving it about twenty to thirty paces from the ghat or 
landing place, off which the bkolio or accommodation boat 
was anchored, to be there operated on the following day. 
*'The next morning I was rather surprised to learn that 
the corpus was non est inventus^ and on going to the spot to 
investigate into the cause of its sudden disappearance, I at 
once discovered that it had been carried, or rather dragged 
away by a tiger, as the animal had left impressions of his 
immense feet clearly discernible on the soft ground round 
about. I followed the trail into some mdl^ a species of red 
jungle, not far from the place where my boat was put up, and 
soon came upon the carcass, which I found untasted by the 
tiger, 1 left it where I found it in hopes of getting a shot 
at the audacious robber, should he return to appropriate the 
spoil, but it remained untouched for three successive days, 
when I thought it useless to keep watch over it any longer ; 
and the stink from it was awfully bad, as decomposition had 
then set in. The next morning, on going to secure the skull, 
I was a good deal astonished to find it gone ! The tiger had 
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