I recollect a large river in the southeast of Ceylon, which so abounds with ferocious crocodiles that the natives would not enter the water in depths above the knees, and even this they objected to, unless necessity compelled them to cross the river.

I was encamped on the banks for some little time, and the natives took the trouble to warn me especially not to enter; and, as proof of the danger, they showed me a spot where three men had been devoured in the course of one year, all three of whom are supposed to have ministered to the appetite of the same crocodile.
Few reptiles are more disgusting in appearance than these brutes; but, nevertheless, their utility counterbalances their bad qualities, as they cleanse the water from all impurities.

So numerous are they that their heads may be seen in fives and tens together, floating at the top of the water like rough corks; and at about five P.M.they bask on the shore close to the margin of the shore ready to scuttle in on the shortest notice.

They are then particularly on the alert, and it is a most difficult thing to stalk them, so as to get near enough to make a certain shot.

This is not bad amusement when no other sport can be had.
Around the margin of a lake, in a large plain far in the distance, may be seen a distinct line upon the short grass like the fallen trunk of a tree.