Here he is speedily drowned and consumed at leisure.
The two lower and front teeth of a crocodile project through the upper
jaw, and their white points attract immediate notice as they protrude
through the brown scales on the upper lip. When the mouth is closed, the
jaws are thus absolutely locked together.
It is a common opinion that the scales on the back of a crocodile will
turn a ball; this is a vulgar error. The scales are very tough and hard,
but a ball from a common fowling-piece will pass right through the body.
I have even seen a hunting-knife driven at one blow deep into the
hardest part of the back; and this was a crocodile of a large size,
about fourteen feet long, that I shot at a place called Bolgodde,
twenty-two miles from Colombo.
A man had been setting nets for fish, and was in the act of swimming to
the shore, when he was seized and drowned by a crocodile. The next
morning two buffaloes were dragged into the water close to the spot, and
it was supposed that these murders were committed by the same crocodile.
I was at Colombo at the time, and, hearing of the accident, I rode off
to Bolgodde to try my hand at catching him.
