elevations among the hills.  Their instincts in Ceylon present no variation from their habits in other countries.  There would appear to be two well-distinguished species in the island, the Allie Kimboola[1], the Indian crocodile, which inhabits the rivers and estuaries throughout the low countries of the coasts, attaining the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and which will assail man when pressed by hunger; and the Marsh crocodile[2], which lives exclusively in fresh water, frequenting the tanks in the northern and central provinces, and confining its attacks to the smaller animals:  in length it seldom exceeds twelve or thirteen feet.  Sportsmen complain that their dogs are constantly seized by both species; and water-fowl, when shot, frequently disappear before they can be secured by the fowler.[3] The Singhalese believe that the crocodile can only move swiftly on sand or smooth clay, its feet being too tender to tread firmly on hard or stony ground.  In the dry season, when the watercourses begin to fail and the tanks become exhausted, the Marsh crocodiles are sometimes encountered wandering in search of water in the jungle; but generally, during the extreme drought, when unable to procure their ordinary food from the drying up of the watercourses, they bury themselves in the mud, and remain in a state of torpor till released by the recurrence of the rains.[4] At Arne-tivoe, in the eastern province, whilst riding across the parched bed of the tank, I was shown the recess, still bearing the form and impress of the crocodile, out of which the animal had been seen to emerge the day before.  A story was also related to me of an officer attached to the department of the Surveyor-General, who, having pitched his tent in a similar position, had been disturbed during the night by feeling a movement of the earth below his bed, from which on the following day a crocodile emerged, making its appearance from beneath the matting.[5]

[Footnote 1:  Crocodilus biporcatus. Cuvier.]

[Footnote 2:  Crocodilus palustris, Less.]

[Footnote 3:  In Siam the flesh of the crocodile is sold for food in the markets and bazaars.  “Un jour je vis plus de cinquante crocodiles, petits et grands, attaches aux colonnes de leurs maisons.  Ils les vendent la chair comme on vendrait de la chair de porc, mais a bien meilleur marche.”—­PALLEGOIX, Siam, vol. i. p. 174.]

[Footnote 4:  HERODOTUS records the observations of the Egyptians that the crocodile of the Nile abstains from food during the four winter months.—­Euterpe, lviii.]

[Footnote 5:  HUMBOLDT relates a similar story as occurring at Calabazo, in Venezuela.—­Personal Narrative, c. xvi.]