24 — 
and was after an exciting chase of three hours caught alive 
at 10 a.m. on the 1st August, 1904. Though three of 
the harpoons discharged hit it, one in the eye, it lived for 30 
hours after it was landed. For about two years before it 
was caught, it was the terror of the Cheppanum Canal havino- 
kiHed several heads of cattle, goats and dogs. Though it 
attacked and mauled several men, only one or two of them 
actually died. (Report, Trivandrum Museum, 1904-1909 
p. 6.) 
The Marsh Crocodile, or Mugger, Crocodilus palustris. 
^ “Grows to a length of 15 feet, or more.” (Boulenger, 
hauna of the Malay Peninsula,” Reptiles, 1912, p. 6.) 
In the Victoria Museum at Karachi there is a stuffed 
Lrocmtlus palustr^ frorn Jungshai, Sind, presented by 
1 0 *"'^ ^ animal was in life probably about 
13 reet (3 ’9 6 metres) long. 
In the Madras Museum there is a large skull of this species, 
which measures : — ^ 
Length, without lower jaw, 1 foot 8 1 inches (0'527 metre). 
Length, with lower jaw, 2 feet l inch (0'635 metre). 
i)r. J. R. Henderson very kindly had this specimen 
measured at my request ; he writes : “ The length of the 
crocodile skull (first measurement) is in the middle line 
from a point m. line with the tip of the snout to one in line 
with the posterior border of the occipital condyle.” 
The largest specimens of Crocodilus palustris that I have 
seen alive were in the Ganges, downstream of Benares, in 
January, 1895 ; some of these attained to an extraordinary 
girth of body and stoutness of limbs and tail, but as I never 
succeeded in catching or killing one of these monsters I am 
not in a position to give the actual dimensions to which 
they attain. 
5.— Food of the Gharial. 
n frequently believed in India, and has been stated in 
books, that the Gharial, Garialis gancjeticiis, feeds entirely 
upon fish. This is, however, not th'e case. I have heard 
of about three undoubted instances of men being killed by 
