The Portland daily press., 1898-09-14
INDIAN oRoooDiLes.
They are Terror to Human Life in Lower
Bengal,

AhABorOuS animal ana causes STeao w
struction to human life. especially in low
er Bengal. In the daily police reports you
seldom fail to see an account of some man.
woman, child or animal either carried OH
or wounded by crocodile, ana NUMEROUS
cases are no doubt never reported.
In all the smaller rivers OF Jessore Pup-
ma and other districts the ''ghaut," or
bathing place, of every village Is protected
bv nalisades and it is not safe to venture
even into these inclosed places incautious-
". for the cunning reptile creeps into them
at NIGHT and lies in wait. l Cuce saw
crocodile that had seized little girl by
the thigh in one of these places end was
swimming off with her in his mouth, pur-
sued by the father in q cocoanut trunk
aanoe. with a bamboo pole. He compelled
the crocodile to drop the child, but it had
torn off one leg from the hip before doing
SO.
The blind ferocity Of the Indian croco-
die is we'll known. had young speci-
men about six inches long, which I kept
in a tub of water. In him was concen-
trated all the ferocity of his race. ALI at
tempts to conciliate him were vain. A
stick put into the water was seized at once
and held with the greatest tenacity. There
was no getting him to relinquish his hold,
and he snapped with the greatest fury at
everything put into the water. Yet, on
the other hand, have seen full grown
crocodile who lived in large pond SO
tame that he came swimming up to
man, who, standing waist deep in water,
called him by his name, 'Kalay Khan,
and would take fowl or piece OF nesh
out Of his hand without doing him any
harm.
Very often q number of crocodiles take
up their habitation in pond and are not
disturbed by the Indians, who In time
come to consider them as sacred animals
| and feed them till they are so tame tha1
they may be approached and almost han
died with impunity.
Crocodiles wander to long distances on
land chiefly to change their habitations'
| owing, suppose, to supplies falling snort.
When met ON their way, they are lnvarl-
ably dubbed or speared by the natives,
| who believe that the gall bladder has me-
dicinal virtues and always try to get one
A long experience has convinced me
| that the head is not the vulnerable part in
| an Indian crocodile. Indeed I can safely
| say that in the course of my long expert
| euce, in waich I have made crocodile
| shooting a special study for awhile, have
| never succeeded in bringing one down
| dead with shot in the head, even from
heavy rifle aimed from the very short dis
| lance of six or seven yards. The most eff
| fectiye shot is lust behind the shoulder, and
| with this shot I have never failed to kill
| on the spot. In one of our tiger shooting
| expeditions we were led to beat along q
branch of the river Kosi, which, coming
| down from the hills of Nepaul, flows be-
tween the Bhaugulpore and Purneah dis
| tricts through alluvial plains and spreads
| into numerous branches. While moving
through the thin jungle saw an immense
| crocodile sleeping on the bank entirely
| out of the water with his head toward the
| river. 1 was about so yards from him,
and, fearing he would disappear in the
| river, let drive at him behind the Shout
4 der with my No. IA smoothbore Samuel
| Mock" muzzle loader. To my surprise,
the crocodile wriggled forward pace or
two into the water and stopped dead.
The mahouts and their assistants jumped
| off their elephants, tied rope round his
waist and with difficulty dragged him
| out. They then set to work to get his gall
| bladder When out open, the stencil was
| overpowering, and man, putting his
hands into the cavity, took out two entire
| human skulls covered with a green de-
| posit of bils, suppose These were prob
| ably the remains of caroasses he had de-
| voured. I took off his head and carried 1t
away, leaving his body to be devoured by
the tigers and vultures. This crocodile
measured II feet in length. The stencil
from his stomach was so horrible that a
| further search for his gall bladder could
| not be made.
| In the GOLD season these crocodiles, az
| we'll as the ghurrials, or gavials, are ex-
| tremely fond of basking in the sun, and
they may be seen stretched out for hours
on the banks of the rivers enjoying q
| sound sleep. 1t is then that crocodile
shooting can be had in perfection. There
Is small river on the eastern boundary
| of the district Of Tirhoot called the Til
jooga, which literally swarms with these
monsters, and once spent a few weeks
| with q friend in a regular crusade against
| them. The river is a narrow, winding
one running between high and precipi-
| tous banks. At every 80 or 60 PAGES
| crocodile, or sometimes three or four OF
them, might be seen lying fast asleep at
the foot Of the bank In the sun. Our plan
was to creep cautiously to the edge OF the
overhanging bank, being guided to the
SpOG Dy q IMAM Oh olb OppoSAUo oAoAo' w
getting above the croeodiles we gave them
q plunging fire from heavy rifles, and gen.
orally succeeded in killing or wounding one
or two, but seldom succeeded in baggins
one, as they almost invariably managed,
even though mortally wounded, to throw
themselves into the water. This result CON
WINGED me that crocodile Is almost invul'
nerable on the head or back or the upper
part of the body generally.
When one is captured, the fishermen
generally out him up and took away select
parts for home consumption, and you may
be sure the gall bladder was secured and
carried away as q prize. In spite OF the
strong musky odor Of the crocodile and his
| general repulsiveness as an article OF diet,
be is eaten by the fishermen caste, who
also eat the large river turtle, which Is an
equally foul feeder.
Crocodiles are very prolific. Young
ones of all sizes abound in the river, and
these from the first display the demoniac
ferocity of their species. The eggs are / i
on ledge of the bank, and sometimes
| n rl,