810 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII^ 
in a more or less irregular and zig-zag fashion avoiding a straight line, and 
pausing at intervals in the manner of a feeding animal, I could get easily 
within 40 or 50 yards. 
Previously I always used a H. V. magazine rifle, and relied more on the force 
of the blow at a longer range. When I discovered that by adopting the tactics 
described I could get up to a much nearer range I experimented with a hghter 
weapon, much easier to handle and with no recoil and httle noise, and which I 
could use much more accurately. I found, that provided the right spots, 
as described in Mr. Shortt’s article were reached, the result, H. V. or Low 
Velocity, was much the same. The mugger was either killed or more 
frequently knocked out sufficiently to allow him to be secured. In addition 
to the advantages the light rifle mentioned gives, one gets infinitely more 
chances of shots, and provided the securing and despatching is done with httle 
noise it is very common to find another candidate waiting round the next 
bend of the shore. During the first day’s shooting I secured 14 skins and 
actually had 5 lying on the shore in different parts of a large “ drmd ” 
awaiting the skinners, who were very much overworked that day ! ! I got 42 
skins in the week, average 8 ft. 
I take with me four men, two of them are Bhils, for skinning. These two fol- 
low me, keeping out of sight all the time in the jimgle, until called up by a whistle 
The chief assistant follows me, stalking as I do, and at a few yards distance 
behind me. The second keeps well behind. If the stalk is successful every- 
thing is done as quietly as possible, without shouting, or loud expressions of 
satisfaction, and when the dead mugger is drawn up the beach to be skinned 
out of sight, I am ready to continue. I have often been amused at the 
gathering accompanying some sportsmen I have seen at work. There is 
nothing a mugger hates worse than a durbar, and no wonder that many people 
find they are hard to get under such circumstances. 
Curiously enough I have never seen mugger come up again after being 
wounded, excepting for one that I hit and for some reason he could not 
submerge. 
I have known them come out to die often enough, and one I remember came 
out half an hour afterwards, right to my feet. In the dimds I speak of they 
are all of the blunt nosed variety ( C. palustris ), rarely over 12 feet, though 
in a certain “ dund ” I know of, entirely siu’roimded by high sand hills, 
there are 5 or 6 big Ga vials ( G. gangeticus ), all about the same size, 14 feet, 
judging by one I got. 
I have heard it said that Gavials cannot climb over these hills and go from 
dimd to dund the way the other kind do. If this is so, it is interesting to 
speculate how they got there, or if they were imprisoned by the sand hills 
forming, as they do very quickly about here. 
I have been unable to find any reliable information regarding the age of 
crocodiles, and as they grow so differently under different conditions I think it 
must be impossible to tell. 
Once when fishing, I hooked and played and eventually landed a small Gavial, 
2 ft. in length. He gave excellent sport, and just as I got him to the bank ex- 
hausted, a large turtle came up and bit off a forefoot. I kept him alive in a tank 
for some months. I have thrice hooked big fellows while fishing, but they 
have simply lain like logs and worried the cast through. A friend shot one, 
in the act of swallowing a wild cat, which was quite fresh and had presumably 
been seized while drinking. 
There are two methods known to me which are practised in Sind, by which 
mugger are taken alive. The first which I have not actually witnessed my- 
self is as follows. 
The water must be shallow enough to allow men to wade, say up to their 
necks. A man goes out on a hollow copper pot, the usual way of crossing water 
