311 
Reptiles of Ceylon. 
feet in length. I have myself seen one twenty-two feet long, 
and about the thickness of a man’s thigh : and I was told that 
much larger ones were to be found in the island. I had a 
transient glimpse of another as he glided past me through the 
bushes in the neighbourhood of Columbo ; in size he seeiiied 
to exceed the one I had formerly seen. The rock-snake in- 
habits chiefly the rocky banks of rivers. His colour is greyish 
with broad white streaks. These snakes, though formidable 
froni their immense size, are perfectly free from poison. They 
are, however, destructive to some of the smaller animals, and 
will devour kids, goats, hogs, poultry, &c. first twisting their 
tail round their prey, to break its bones and squeeze it to 
death. 
Before I arrived in the island, I had heard many stories of 
a monstrous snake, so vast in size as to be able to devour tigers 
and biiftaloes, and so daring as even to attack the elephant. 
I made every inquiry on the spot concerning this terrible ani-' 
mal, but not one of the natives had ever heard of the monster. 
Probably these fabulous stories took their rise from an exag- 
gerated account of the rock-snake. 
Alligators of an immense size infest all the rivers of Ceylon, 
and render them every where very dangerous : many persons 
continually fall victims to them. In the year 1799? when colonel 
Champagne was lieutenant-governor in the absence of Mr. 
North, an alligator was sent him down for inspection by one 
of the principal Cinglese. It was full twenty feet in length, 
and as thick in the body as a horse. It was killed about 
thirty miles from Columbo, and required two carts placed one 
after the other, and drawn by eight bullocks, to transport its 
immense body, while part of the tail still hung trailing on the 
