The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-11-08
INDIAN CROCODILEs.
THEY ARE A TERROR TO HUMAN LIFE
IN LOWER BENGAL.
Ferocious and Prolific, They Make the
Rivers They Inhabit veritable Death
Traps-Despite Their Responsiveness They
Are Eaten by Native Fishermen.

Ferocious and Prolific. They Make the
Rivers They Inhabit veritabIe Death
Traps-Despite Their Responsiveness They
Are Eaten by Native Fishermen.
The Indian crocodile is q ferocious and
dangerous animal and causes great de-
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 off
Or wounded by a crocodile, and numerous
cases are no doubt never reported.
In all the smaller rivers of Jessore Pub.
ma and other districts the "ghaut," or
bathing place, of every village is protected
by palisades, and it is not safe to venture
even into these inclosed places incautious-
ly, for the cunning reptile creeps into them
at night and lies in wait. I once saw
crocodile that had seized little girl by
the thigh in one of these places and was
swimming off with her in his mouth, pur-
sued by the father in coooanut trunk
canoe, with 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 well known. had young speci-
men about six inches long, which kept
in tub of water In him was ooncen-
trated all the ferocity of his race All 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 a large pond SO
tame that he came swimming up to a
man, who, standing waist deep in water,
called him by his name, "Kalay Khan"
and would take fowl or piece Of flesh
out of his hand without doing him any
harm.
Very often 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 that
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 short.
When met on their way, they are invari
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 / can safely
say that in the course of my long expert
enoe, in which have made crocodile
shooting a special study for awhile, / have
never succeeded in bringing one down
dead with shot in the head, even from a
heavy rifle aimed from the very short dis
Of iv do no 30
fective shot is just behind the shoulder, and
with this shot have never failed to kill
on the spot In one of our tiger shooting
expeditions we were led to beat along a
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 l was about so yards from him,
and, fearing he would disappear in the
river, let drive at him behind the shout
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 cut open, the stencil was
overpowering, and man, putting his
hands into the cavity, took out two entire
human skulls covered with q green de-
posit of bile, suppose. These were prob
ably the remains of oarcasses he had de-
youred l took off his head and carried it
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
further search for his gall bladder could
not be made
In the cold season these crooodiles, as
well 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 a small river on the eastern boundary
of the district of Tirhoot called the Til
jooga, which literally swarms with these
monsters, and 1 once spent a few weeks
with a friend in regular crusade against
them. The river is a narrow, winding
one, running between high and precipi-
tous banks. At every so or go PAGES
crocodile, or sometimes three or four of
them, might be seen lying fast asleep at
the foot of the bank in the sum- Our plan
was to creep cautiously to the edge of the
overhanging bank, being guided to the
spot by man on the opposite shore. On
getting above the crocodiles we gave them
plunging fire from heavy rifles, and gem
orally succeeded in killing or wounding one
or two, but seldom succeeded in bagging
one, as they almost invariably managed,
even though MORALLY wounded, to throw