get within eighty
yards of him before he lifts his scaly head, and, listening for a
second, plunges off the bank.

I have been contradicted in stating that a ball will penetrate their
scales. It is absurd, however, to hold the opinion that the scales
will turn a ball--that is to say, stop the ball (as we know that a
common twig will of course turn it from its direction, if struck
obliquely).

The scales of a crocodile are formed of bone exquisitely jointed
together like the sections of a skull; these are covered externally
with a horny skin, forming, no doubt, an excellent defensive armor,
about an inch in thickness; but the idea of their being impenetrable to
a ball, if struck fair, is a great fallacy. People may perhaps
complain because a pea rifle with a mere pinch of powder may be
inefficient, but a common No. 16 fowling-piece, with two drachms of
powder, will penetrate any crocodile that was ever hatched.

Among the most harmless kinds are those which inhabit the salt lakes in
the south of Ceylon. I have never beard of an accident in these
places, although hundreds of persons are employed annually in
collecting salt from the bottom.

These natural reservoirs are of great extent, some of them being many
miles in circumference. Those most productive are about four miles
round, and yield a supply in August, during the height of the dry
season.

Salt in Ceylon is a government monopoly; and it has hitherto been the
narrow policy of the government to keep up an immense price upon this
necessary of life, when the resources of the country could produce any
amount required for the island consumption.

These are now all but neglected, and the government simply gathers the
salt as the wild pig feeds upon the fruit which falls from the tree in
its season.

The government price of salt is now about three shillings per bushel.
This is very impure, being mixed with much dirt and sand. The revenue
obtained by the salt monopoly is about forty thousand pounds per annum,
two-thirds of which is an unfair burden upon the population, as the
price, according to the supply obtainable, should never exceed one
shilling per bushel.

Let us consider the capabilities of the locality from which it is
collected.

The lakes are some five or six in number, situated within half a mile
of the sea, separated only by a high bank of drift sand, covered for
the most part with the low jungle which clothes the surrounding
country. Flat