KAVEN — JACKING IN EAST INDIAN JUNGLES 29 
lamp about the banks, under the overhanging trees, between great 
logs and masses of roots, and up the mouths of little streamlets, even 
shining it high up into the great dark masses of foliage of the giants 
of the forest, and down into the muddy waters below. 
As soon as I became accustomed to hunting at night, in order to get 
better results I told my natives that they must never speak while we 
were hunting; I sat cross legged in the bow of the canoe and, if I saw an 
animal, directed the rays of the lamp toward it and shook the canoe 
slightly as a signal to the men that they were to paddle in the direction 
which I thus indicated. They were not even to raise their paddles to 
the surface of the water lest the drip cause a sound, ever so slight, 
yet enough, in the stillness of the night, to arouse the suspicions or 
cause the flight of a wary animal. 
Until this trip up the Berau River I had had no experience with 
crocodiles, though of course I had heard many very terrible stories 
about these animals from the natives and sometimes from whites as 
well. My first experience with a crocodile occurred one night while I 
was being paddled along close to the bank of the river. It was with the 
expectation of finding such animals as civets, jungle cats, mouse-deer, 
muntjac, sambur, and pigs that nightly excursions of this kind were 
undertaken. The canoe glided noiselessly along. Behind me were 
seated three Malays, one in the stern, one in the center of the canoe, 
and the third close behind me in the bow. The branches of the trees 
hung far out over the water and there were many partly submerged 
logs and snags. It was among these that I caught sight of the reflec- 
tion from the eye of a crocodile. The reptile was headed up stream the 
way we were going. Holding the la.mp high, I pointed with my finger 
at the animal hoping that the natives would see it, but they did not and 
as we were getting very close to it I picked up the shotgun (12 bore 
hammerless) which could be easily manipulated with one hand. The 
canoe was very flat, no part of it more than six or eight inches above 
the level of the water. When the bow of the canoe was within about 
ten or twelve feet of the head of the crocodile I fired. Only the upper 
part of the head with its eyes and nostrils was above the surface of 
the water. It seemed that simultaneously with the report of the gun 
there was a great splash and the next instant we were covered with 
spray, which broke the chimney of the lamp and nearly extinguished 
it. Evidently the coarse shot had glanced off the hard bones of the 
skull for the creature gave one great lunge and disappeared beneath 
the surface of the muddy water. We returned to the bigger boat and 
