An alligator uses its long and powerful tail- -or rather the tail end of its

alligator's jaws, and being lost to sight | dragged him to the bottom of the tank, forever. This was done on several oc- and piggy was never seen again. casions in my presence; and a large alligator would probably adopt the same course with a small dog, a young long body-as its chief weapon of pig, or any such trifling morsel. With a human being as its victim the alligator proceeds differently. Having seized a man by the arm or the leg, the alligator at once dives down to the bottom of its favorite pool in the deepest water, and there it lies upon the body till life is extinct, and for several hours or days until corruption has set in. What happens when the body is fit to be eaten in the alligator's judgment, is not given to man to witness. It is only when the body is recovered, and the alligator driven off, that we come to a knowledge of its previous treatment.

I have heard a story

aggression. When an alligator has crept noiselessly under water to the spot where a man is standing bathing, there is a sudden sweep of the tail, and the man is knocked down into the water where the alligator seizes him in its mouth, and carries him down to the bottom in deep water. When a pony or a small cow is drinking at the side of a river, the alligator pursues the same tactics if the slope of ground permits it; and having first knocked its prey into, the water, seizes it in its mouth, and then drowns and kills it as it pleases. It is seldom that the affrighted animal escapes, for Perhaps I may here tell the old story it is half drowned before it can think of the pig which was saved from the of resistance. jaws of the alligators in the Burdwan told by a native of Bengal, who alleged rajah's tanks by the rhinoceros which that he saw a full-grown tiger seized dwelt in the same enclosure as the alli- by a large alligator, and dragged into gators. Poor little piggy was tossed the river and drowned. I did not beinto the tank to feed the alligators, but lieve the story for several reasons; one happening to fall near the sloping side, reason being that if there had been a by which the rhinoceros went down to tiger and a large alligator in conflict on its ablutions in the tank, he scrambled the bank of the river, where the tiger out and took refuge between the legs was seized by the foot, the native who of the rhinoceros. An alligator crawled beheld it would not have remained to out of the tank in hot pursuit of piggy, watch the result, but would have but when he came to the rhinoceros, it sought safety at a distance of at least a lowered its head and stopped him. mile. There was, however, a very The alligator retired discomfited. Piggy good picture exhibited in England not seems to have grasped the situation, long ago, of a leopard being seized by and ever afterwards kept close to the an alligator. The leopard was lying rhinoceros, and when I saw him, on a under a bush by the river side, with casual visit to Burdwan, he was almost one of its paws in the water. a year old. I sent the story to my alligator stole quietly up, and got that cousin Frank Buckland, who published paw in his mouth and began to pull at it in one of his popular books on natu- its prey. The leopard's look of rage ral history. I regret to say that, after and anguish were well expressed in the all, piggy fulfilled his destiny; for, ac- picture. The leopard is not a large cording to native superstitions, he must animal, but only a large alligator would have been born to be eaten by an alli- have had the audacity to attack such a gator. Growing over-confident, he one beast. I apprehend that if the occurday wandered along the edge of the rence as shown in the picture is true, tank, without seeing that an alligator the leopard did not rejoin his family was lying in the grass sunning itself. circle that evening, if the alligator sucWith a sweep of its huge tail the alli-ceeded in dragging it into the water. gator knocked piggy into the water, I must now go back a long way to the and following him, quietly seized and time, more than forty years ago, when

The

my wrath against alligators was aroused | inal does not long survive, but it sinks by the sad fate of my friend S.'s little into deep water, where it cannot be dog Jerry, at Budge-Budge, and I seen. I never succeeded in killing and vowed eternal enmity to the race. I bagging an alligator by a shot in the was ordered to go from Calcutta to brain. The structure of the skull proChittagong, and as there were no rail- vides much protection to the brain, and ways or steamers in those days, I had a bullet might easily be deflected by to go in a house-boat, much like the the hard bones. It was not my vocaEgyptian dahabieh, my route lying tion to go about killing alligators, but across the Delta of Bengal, and through on one occasion I was witness to the those dreary and inhospitable regions great difficulty of taking the animal's known as the Sunderbuns. I must, life. We were on a shooting party however, admit that some parts of the near the Pointee indigo factory on the Sunderbuns are very beautiful, and on Ganges, and one day when we returned the third day after leaving Calcutta I from our morning's round in the junfound myself rowing along a river about gles, after deer and always a possible half a mile wide, with a fine belt of tiger or a wolf, we found that some forest trees on either bank. There was fishermen had brought in an alligator not another boat, or another human about six feet long, securely bound on being to be seen, and we rowed along a bullock-cart. The animal was still at great pace, taking advantage of a alive, but had evidently been severely favorable tide. Suddenly one of the beaten to make him quiet on the boatmen called my attention to the bullock-cart, so the order was given to head of a large alligator that was just tie a stout rope round its loins, and to visible on the surface. The animal turn it into a small tank to refresh and seemed to be inquisitive, and to want recover itself, whilst we were taking to know who was invading its domains. our baths and our breakfast. BreakIt is not an unusual thing for an alli- fast over, the alligator was hauled out gator to seize a boatman who is rowing of the tank, and was quite lively, so with his foot outside the boat, or per- that it had to be fastened to a tree. forming his ablutions on the little plat- Then operations for killing it began, form at the stern provided for that but bullets from a small rifle or an purpose. So the alligator came boldly ordinary twelve-bore gun seemed only on, and I had time to go into the cabin to irritate it. A Sontal brought a large and get my gun, and load it with a spear, one of the lato venabula ferro bullet. I got a fair shot at the alliga- which they use, and drove it down the tor's head, and as the beast made a alligator's throat into its vitals, and this great commotion in the water, I readily | had more effect, whilst another man believed my boatmen when they said got an axe and chopped away at the that I had hit it. Not knowing much about alligators then, and believing that I had hit this one in the head, I expected to be able to secure his body. But I was much mistaken. I may have given it a mortal wound, but the alli-drew, and the mob of Sontals who had gator had no idea of giving itself up for a single bullet, and it disappeared, and I saw it no more. The boatmen said next day that they had seen the body float by, as we were at anchor for the night. But what will not a boatman say with a view to baksheesh ?

An alligator's tenacity of life is remarkable. I have no doubt that when its brain is pierced by a bullet the ani

neck till the head was separated from the body. The body was then cut open, and the heart was lying on the ground by its side, but still the tail continued to move. But here we with

been eagerly waiting rushed in with their knives, and cut up the body and ate everything eatable, so that in a short time there was nothing left but the skin and the bones. Whilst writing this I have come across Major Hopkins's "Fishing Experiences," 1 a bright little

1 London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1893.

book, well got up, and with some the river, and frightening the people pretty pictures. Major Hopkins tells with its roaring, so that he begged that how he caught a murderous alligator in the sahib would come out to shoot Ceylon, and put it to death with much it. I at once prepared to ride out a difficulty, many shots having been fired distance of about twenty miles, and with but little effect till some one fired sent word to the darogah that I was down its throat and sickened it. His coming. I had hardly ridden a few old hunter then attacked it with an axe miles when I was met by another mesto sever the head from the body, but senger, to say that the alligator had was nearly knocked out of time by a broken loose, and that it would be no sweep of the alligator's tail. At length good for me to come. So I was disapthe animal was slain. Major Hopkins pointed; but it afterwards came to my writes that his alligator measured from knowledge that the whole story was a fifteen to twenty feet, which is a large pure fiction, invented by the darogah, size, and a twenty-feet alligator is who thought that it would show his rather a rare bird. There is much dif- zeal and please the magistrate, and ference between fifteen feet and twenty that no one would be so foolish as to feet in an animal like an alligator. ride out twenty miles to shoot an alligator. A somewhat analogous occurrence took place at Chittagong nearly twenty years afterwards when I was commissioner of Chittagong. The police inspector (no longer darogah) sent in a report to the superintendent of police that three tigers had come down from the main forest, and taken up a position in some detached, jungle-covered hills, where they might easily be found and shot. So the superintendent of police and I and the collector sent out guns and elephants and tents, and rode about thirty miles to the police station. Great was our disgust when on our arrival the police inspector came out to greet us, and with exquisite flattery informed us that the tigers, having heard the news of our lordships' coming, had all run away. I have seen a story like this told elsewhere, though I cannot find it. I can only say that it occurred to me and my friend the late Mr. J. D. Ward, and General John Graham, who was then a major and district superintendent of police, about 1862-63.

I had not forgotten my vow of eternal enmity to alligators, and so it came to pass that in the year 1846-47, when I had temporarily become magistrate of the Chittagong district, I took the opportunity of endeavoring to promote their destruction. The magistrate was then the head of the district police, who were ill-paid and untrained and very incapable. The head of each local division of police was styled a darogah, which was said to be a title derived from two Persian words signifying a teller of lies. But that is another matter. When the darogahs received a written order from the magistrate telling them to exterminate alligators, they rather rejoiced at the new opportunity and opening for plundering somebody. They replied at once in terms of Oriental hyperbole, expressing their detestation of alligators and their intention of destroying them. They had therefore sent for the principal fishermen, and ordered them to catch all the alligators in the country, and they would send a further report in a short time. This really meant that There is a native proverb (the origithey had sent for some unfortunate fish-nal is in Sanskrit poetry), that he who ermen and extorted money or fish from bathes in the river should first make them. There was only one darogah friends with the alligator. It is to be who went further. He sent in an elab- regretted that no directions are given orate report, to the effect that he had with the proverb for making friends hired a large boat, and got a large hook, with the alligator. The Hindoo comwhich he had baited with a live goat, munity is very much given to bathing and that he had caught a huge alligator, in rivers and in tanks and it is a curiwhich was dragging the boat all about ous fact that the Mahomedans, living

the

alongside of them, are much less ad-| gator who is ready to take the early dicted to bathing. Perhaps a Hindoo worm, which tends to show that the might conciliate the alligator by push- worm was wrong in getting up so early. E ing a Mahomedan into the water, but it In the course of the morning the numis not the practice to do so at present. ber of bathers increases, and they The natives bathe in tanks and in stand about enjoying their ablutions rivers. Almost every house has what and oblivious of dauger. All of a sudwe might call a water-hole belonging to den, an alligator seizes one of them it, out of which the earthen foundation and drags him down, almost before a of the house was dug. To this water-shriek of despair can be uttered. The hole the members of the house have other bathers flee; but there is no one exclusive resort. It is usually covered to rescue the unfortunate victim of the with green scum and weeds and is very day. Of course, some attempts are foul, but the natives don't mind that. made to kill an alligator that haunts a Even this water-hole is not always bathing-ghat, but the fishermen have sacred to the alligator who hides him- no guns, and the alligator easily breaks self in it, and waits for his opportunity their nets. It may seem incredible, for carrying off some child of the but at one of the bathing-places of the household. But this is a very rare oc- city of Cuttack, a large alligator was currence, as the alligator knows that killed, and when it was cut opeu, his position in such narrow quarters is silver and gold and brass ornaments not safe. There is also in almost every that the women wear, which were village a large tank with good deep found in its belly, were enough to show water and convenient ghauts or sloping that it must have carried off and killed steps for bathers. Here the people go upwards of thirty grown-up women. for their daily bath and their daily gos- I have not got a note of the length of sip, and here there are almost always that alligator, but the head was kept one or two small alligators. When the by a gentleman whom I knew, and I alligators are small, they are tolerated, often saw it. The head of an alligator and little heed is paid to them, but one is in the shape of a triangle, and the day a large beast has found its way to base of the triangle in this alligator the tank, and tries to carry off one of was thirty-eight inches on the bone, so the bathers. Then there is a great that when covered with skin and flesh commotion, and sometimes a rescue of and muscle, it must have looked larger. the victim is not possible. But it is at Imagine the power of this monster the river bathing-places that the alliga- when it opened its horrid jaws. I betor finds the most convenient field for lieve that in the Natural History Muhis ravages. Almost every Indian river seum at Kensington equally large heads is deemed sacred, and some spiritual may be seen, and it is well worth a benefit is supposed to be derived from journey to go and see them. bathing in it. In any large town or village there is usually a bathing-ghat with convenient flights of steps leading down to the water. Here the people assemble in great numbers. The women of the higher classes creep down before daylight, and hope to get back to their houses before they can be seen. The young women with their graceful figures, and their wet garments clinging closely to their bodies, would, perhaps, not mind a little delay, but they are hurried home by their elderly chaperones. Sometimes one of these poor creatures is carried off by the alli

I have seen my friend, Mr. T. R., when he was magistrate of Rungpore, jump into a tank where he knew that there were two alligators. And an- E other friend of mine, Mr. L., most rashly jumped one night from the roof of a house-boat into the river Luckia, although there were several large alligators in that part of the river. I have seen my friends S. and L. go out on the bare back of elephants to get a swim in the deep backwaters of the Berhampooter, although there are sure to be alligators in such a place. I know that my friend L. made a very

hasty retreat to his animated bathing in the Sunderbuns grow to a great machine when he fancied that an alli- size, and are uncommonly bold. They gator was making for him. Luckily it sometimes attack the fishermen in their was a false alarm, for he might easily boats; but there are very few fisherhave been caught, and killed. I had men in that part of the country, and it once an unintentional interview with has been observed by several sportsan alligator that looked rather nasty. men that where men are not numerous I was going in a small budgerow or the wild animals are bolder, and more house-boat to join some friends in fearless in their attacks on human beshooting on the seacoast of the Sunder-ings. buns. Our rendezvous was to have It may be asked why, if I professed been at Morellgunge, but I was late, such enmity to alligators, I did not and the others had gone on before me, always take more systematic measures so I pushed on at night to overtake for their destruction. I fear that my them. A heavy fog came on during official position and duties would have the night, whilst we were making the hardly been consistent with the funcmost of the ebb-tide, and we grounded tions of an alligator catcher. My hopelessly on a large sand-bank, which friend Mr. F. B. Simson, of the Bengal was about three hundred yards from Civil Service, a much greater sportsthe main stream of the river. When man than myself, admits that he never the sun rose and the fog cleared away, undertook systematically the sport of I saw that I was imprisoned for hours alligator-killing. He was content to until the flood-time came to set my fire the bullets of his rifles at the many boat afloat. Luckily a dinghy, with monsters that he saw in navigating the the daily supplies and letters for our rivers of eastern Bengal, and I may camp, was hailed as it was passing, and have done much the same thing, for I I determined to transfer myself and my seldom saw an alligator without firing guns to the dinghy and to join my at it. Much depended on the state of friends. I therefore got out of the the tides whether or not alligators budgerow and began to walk over the would be seen; at low tide they lay soft mud towards the dinghy when I basking on the mud, at high water they saw a large alligator, which had been were busy catching fish, and as our sunning itself on the sand-bank, was steamer or boat passed along, not an making tracks towards me; at all alligator was to be seen. It seems events, he was going parallel to me, rather a curious thing, but I cannot towards the dinghy, so as to cut me off. remember that any of the fishermen or An alligator on the familiar soil of the low-caste natives of eastern Bengal sand-bank makes a much better pace devoted themselves specially to the with his four legs than an Englishman catching of alligators as a profession. in his shooting-boots, his feet sinking Some men used to come from Burmah deep into the soil at each step. Fortu- before its annexation, to kill alligators, nately I had my gun with me, so I and kingfishers, and otters. I was halted and fired at my enemy. He did once staying at an indigo factory where not seem to understand the first shot, two of these Burmese shikarees were or the second, but luckily the third bul- at work. They had marked down two let may have hit him, for he lashed his large alligators in the bed of the river, tail and turned off at once towards the and had observed that they used to nearest water, and left me at liberty to come out and bask in the sunshine at make my way to the dinghy. I think midday. The modus operandi was as that I was in rather a dangerous posi- follows. The shikaree stole up as near tion, and if my guns had not been with as he dared to the sleeping alligator, me that alligator might have made a and then fired from a sort of cross-bow meal of me. I cannot say how many a very sharp little arrow, which easily feet long he was, but he seemed to my penetrated the skin. To this arrow fears a huge monster. The alligators there were attached a ball of fine

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