An Exciting Event.

Manawatu Herald, 20 June 1893, Page 3

An Exciting Event.

; A correspondent of the Field reports the following exciting incident which happened a month or two ago in the eastern province of Ceylon : — "Together with two natives I was," he says, " crossing a tank (Sagaman) early in the morning in a very small outrigger canoe capable of holding four men, the outrigger being very insecurely tied on, and not half the length of the boat. We had got within 150 and 200 yards of the shore, the water being from three feet six inches to four feet six inches deep, and shoaling very gradually, when there was a great commotion in the water a few yards ahead, and a crocodile appeared ; he made straight for me. I was sitting in the bows, fortunately on the outrigger side of the boat. He seized the outrigger in his jaws, and shook the boat violently for a few moments, then letting go he " went astern " slowly, head towards us all the while and hisaing violently, then bebg on the open-water side of the boat. After backing about 20yds he suddenly returned to the charge, and repeated the performance. By this time, however, I had managed to get a oouple of cartridges into one of my guns, which were leaning in the bows in front of me, and gave the brute a bullet in the head ; this knocked him out of time, and he let go the outrigger, and began to perform a series of evolutions on the top of the water, which would have been highly dangerous to us if the men had not fortunately recovered their presence of mind and paddled out of reach. A shot in the back of the head finished him. He was a fair size for a tank animal, measuring 13ft odd."