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 life, and some hundreds of children are carried off every year in the Punjaub.

Buffaloes are also very destructive. Where they are wild the tame herds are visited by the wild bulls, and they are always much dreaded.

Jackals, though very numerous, and alarmingly noisy, rarely do harm, and are not apprehended.

Alligators abound in all the great rivers. They are of two distinct kinds, the long-nosed one, called gurrial or gavial, and the short-nosed one called muggur or bocha. The former is believed to be harmless, the latter quite the contrary. On one occasion, while passing down the Ganges, I was called by an indigo planter to see a boy of about twelve years of age, who was seized on the water's edge by a muggur, and though the flesh was stripped from the bone, from the knee downwards, the little fellow got away with his life, by beating the monster over the eyes with a stick.

21. EARTHQUAKES are not common, and are most frequent on the north-east frontier and in Assam. They very rarely do any harm. The houses there are generally built upon trunks of trees, let into the ground; and though the earth heaves and rumbles, and the roof over head may crack, and the crockery rattle on the table, no one thinks of danger. However, serious consequences sometimes ensue. Much damage was recently done to the houses at Almorah and, the church