the water; but, from all accounts, came
off second best in this rencontre. There no
being enough of water in the nulla to drown
the buffalo, the Mugger soon found he had
caught a Tartar; and after being well mauled
by the buffalo's horns, he was fain to scuttle
off and hide himself among the mud.

I had observed, when blasting the snags,
that the concussion produced by the discharge
had the effect of killing all the fish within a
range of some twenty or thirty yards. After
every explosion, they were found in great
numbers, flocking on the surface of the water
with their bellies uppermost. It now occurred
to me, that if we could only get within a
moderate distance of the Mugger, if we did
not blow him to pieces, we would at all events
give him a shock that would rather astonish
him. An explosion of gunpowder under water
communicates a much severer shock to the
objects in its immediate vicinity, than the
same quantity of powder exploded in the air;
the greater density of the water enabling it,
as it were, to give a harder blow.

Having made our arrangements, Mr. Hall,
my brother, and myself, got into a small canoe,
with the blasting apparatus on board, and
dropt down the stream to where the nulla
discharged its waters into the Rohan. He
then got out and proceeded to a village close
by, where we obtained for a few annas, the
carcass of a young kid. A flask with about
six pounds of gunpowder, and having the
conducting wires attached, was then sewn into
the kid's belly. Two strong ropes were also
tied to this bait; and, to one of these,
the conducting wire was firmly bound with
small cord. The ropes were about thirty
yards long, and had each attached to its
extremities one of the inflated goat-skins used
by water-carriers. Hall, with his goat-skin
under his arm, and a coil of loose rope in his
hand, took one side of the nulla, while my
brother, similarly provided, took the other.
My brother's rope contained the wire; so I
walked beside him, while two coolies, with the
battery ready charged, and slung to a pole
which rested on their shoulders, accompanied
me. A small float was also attached by a
string to the kid, so as to indicate its position.

These arrangements being made, we
commenced walking up the nulla, dragging
the carcass of the kid in the stream, and
moving it across from side to side so as
to leave no part of the bed untried; and as
the nulla was only about twelve yards
wide, we felt pretty confident that if the
Mugger were in it, we conld scarcely fail of
coming in contact with him. We had
proceeded only about a quarter of a mile, when
the float suddenly dipt. My brother and
Hall threw the loose coil of ropes they
carried on the water, along with the inflated
skins. These made it soon evident by their
motion that the Mugger had seized the kid. He
was dashing across in a zig-zag direction down
the stream. I ran after him as fast as I could;
and paying out the cord from the reel when I
found it impossible to keep up with him. On
reaching a place where the banks were steeper
than usual he came to a stand still. I got on
the top of the bank and commenced hauling
in the rope. I did not, however, venture to
lift the skin out of the water for fear of
disturbing him, until the coolies with the battery
had time to come up. This was a very anxious
time; for, if the Mugger had shifted his
quarters before they came up, a fresh run
with him would have ensued, with the
chance of his breaking the wires with his
teeth. After a while I heard the coolies
approaching, and my brother scolding them
and urging them to hasten on. Just as
their heads appeared above the bank the
foremost coolie tripped his foot and fell, I
groaned with disappointment presently my
brother came along with them and brought
the battery to my feet; a good deal of the
acid had been spilt, but with the aid of a
bottle of fresh acid we had brought along
with us, we soon got the battery up to the
requisite power. Everything being now in
order, I commenced pulling up the rope with
the wire. I proceeded as cautiously as
possible for fear of disturbing the Mugger; but,
in spite of all my efforts, the inflated skin, in
coming up the bank, dislodged some loose
pieces of earth, and sent them splashing into
the water. Fortunately, however, the Mugger
had made up his mind to digest the kid
where he was. I could not help chuckling
when I at length got hold of the end of the
wires. While my brother was fastening one
of them to the battery, I got the other
ready for completing the circuit. The Mugger
all the while lying still at the bottom of the
nulla with, most likely, a couple of fathoms
of water over his head, unconscious of
danger, and little dreaming that the two-
legged creatures on the bank had got a nerve
communicating with his stomach, through
which they were going to send a flash of lightning,
that would shatter his scaly hulk to
pieces.

Everything being now ready, I made
fatal contact. Our success was complete!
We felt a shock, as if something had fallen
down the bank — a mound of muddy water
rose, with a muffled, rumbling sound, and then
burst out to a column of dark smoke. A
splashing and bubbling succeeded, and then
a great crimson patch floated on the water,
like a variegated carpet pattern. Strange-
looking fragments of scaly skin were picked
up by the natives from the water's edge, and
brought to us amidst a very general
rejoicing. The exploded Mugger floated down the
stream, and the current soon carried it out of
sight. We were not at all sorry, for it looked
such a horrible mess that we felt no desire to
examine it.

Our sense of triumphant satisfaction was,
however, sadly damped, about a week afterwards,
when we received the mortifying