place, the brute suddenly made a dash at him
and seized him. If my memory serve me, this
man managed somehow to get away from him;
but such was the terror inspired, that the people
in the neighbourhood would not venture any
longer to dip for water as before, but erected a
high platform to stand on. The alligator has
been seen to come below, and cast a wistful
glance upward at the persons standing there;
whether on those occasions the interesting
creature shed "crocodile tears," my informant,
an officer in the Engineers, did not tell me.
Looking over the inquest reports filed in my
court, I observe the following entry, which I
give as it stands, with the Singhalese idiom
thrown into the English: "No. 25. Held
on the twenty-fourth of April, 1863.— The
deceased was a boy about eight or nine years
old. He died on the twenty-third of April,
1863, by attack of an alligator, whilst he was
bathing in company with another boy at the
ferry called Hambantottewatte-Tottoo Palle.
Some of the relatives of the deceased were
examined, and they have said that they had seen
the alligator struggling with the deceased on
the surface of the water, shortly after the
deceased was missing." To this is added the
following memorandum by the coroner at the time
being: "The body of the boy was afterwards
recovered, with only a slight wound on the
thigh."

It is matter of wonder, when one considers
the absurdly small canoes in which the natives
often paddle about on the rivers and lakes, that
the alligators do not more frequently attack the
fisherman when alone near their haunts, and
drag him out of the canoe. I have not
authenticated the story, but I have been told
that an alligator did, not long ago, so seize a
man on the Batticaloa lake, where the alligators
are known to grow to an enormous size, and
carry him off: while for some distance the
unfortunate man's cries were distinctly heard
along the shore. The following story I have
authenticated— the hero of the tale is alive,
and, after hearing of his adventure from two
or three persons, I went to him and heard
it from his own lips. He was the servant of
a civilian at the station, and was one evening
washing his feet by the side of the river
bounding his master's compound, when an
alligator seized him by the calf of the leg and
dragged him to the bottom of the river, which,
at the place where he had been standing,
suddenly deepens close to the bank. He struck
his head against the bottom, and was half
stunned. For some reason best known to
himself, the alligator relinquished his hold as
soon as the man reached the bottom, and he
and the alligator came together to the
surface. When they arrived there, the alligator
was not holding him, but he was holding the
alligator. They parted company, each seeking
his natural element, and the poor fellow has
the marks of the alligator's teeth deeply
impressed both on his calf and on the hand with
which he was washing his leg when seized.

It is believed by the natives that the alligator
cannot devour its food like other animals; that
after having seized any animal, he carries it
away and secrets it in a hole; and that when
partially decomposed, he takes a piece into his
jaws, rises to the surface, throws it up, and
then catches it. How far this is correct I
cannot personally say, though I have it from
authority; but I know that the proper way
to set an alligator hook, is to suspend it when
baited, from a forked twig stuck into the ground,
so that the bait hangs temptingly over the
water for the alligator to snap at. In this way
I have seen seven tank alligators, or rather
crocodiles, hauled out of one tank in one morning,
the hooks having been set overnight; but
this was a small haul compared with some I
have heard of. River alligators are not so easily
caught. The natives in the north entertain the
belief that a bullet has a peculiarly fatal effect
on an alligator if previously coated with lime,
and I have been told by a very close observer
who would receive and communicate any fact
of the kind only after satisfactory evidence,
that if a little ball of lime be placed in
the mouth of one of the young alligators
one sometimes catches with the hand in a
tank, it will immediately turn over on its back,
and show signs of great distress. One more
anecdote about alligators, and I have done
with them. Two large cows, of English breed,
were feeding close to the banks of a river in
the district of Negowlo, when an alligator
seized one of them by the head; the other cow,
which was coupled, after the custom of the
country, to the one which was seized, did all in
her power to resist the efforts of the foe to
drag them into the water, but in vain; after a
violent struggle both cows were carried off. They
belonged to the magistrate of the district, and
my informant, accompanied by some Singhalese
sportsmen, went up the river in pursuit.
About a mile distant from where the cows
had been seized, in a nice sequestered spot,
they discovered the alligator. He had beaten
down and smoothed for himself a comfortable
bed of water-rushes, and here he had laid
the carcases of the two cows, while he, stretched
at full length, was enjoying himself in the
sunshine, and gloating over his expectations.
The hunters stole quietly, upon him, and one of
them fired at his head, hitting him in what is
called the "false eye." His aim was true, but
the alligator had time to plunge into the water,
and there he sank at once to the bottom. They
then began poking their boat poles into the
mud, and at last felt the alligator below,
apparently lifeless. The question now was, who
should go down and inquire after him? An
undertaking which everybody politely offered
to leave to somebody else. At last one man,
who had primed himself for the occasion, said
he would go down and bell the cat. So he
descended, and soon came up again, declaring
that the alligator was dead. Ropes were then
given him, and he went down again and
attached them to the carcase. With very great