286 Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 



are taken in i light canoe, which is manned by the hunters, each 

 armed with an otter- spear, barbed like a harpoon and provided with 

 a handle about ten feet long. An experienced Indian occupies the 

 bow and cheers the dogs, who no sooner wind the game than they 

 give cry. On arriving at the burrows or Calle Pero (Otter city), the 

 land party divide into three : one watches, the other occupies that part 

 at the bank of the river which contains the holes, while the third 

 pokes his spear into the holes to eject the occupants. As soon as an 

 Otter is started the hounds are again in full cry; and some of the 

 smaller species of dog, of which there are several in the canoe, are 

 let loose to dive after it : in this they relieve each other ; as soon as 

 one is up another goes down ; and although the Otter has larger 

 lungs than most other quadrupeds, and can remain comparatively 

 for a longer period under w T ater, it is at last obliged to seek for shal- 

 low water or the shore, where the hunters are ready to despatch 

 it with their spears. After the old Otters have fled, the young 

 ones retreat to the uppermost recesses of their holes, where they are 

 dug out, and secured for the purpose of taming ; or, which is the case 

 more frequently, they are killed by a slight blow on the forehead. 



When hard pursued on land, they frequently double or evince other 

 cunning tricks to elude their pursuers. I shall never forget the 

 sight of an Otter-hunt in the river Tacutu. Although almost crippled 

 by the merciless bites which the sand-flies had inflicted during my 

 stay in Esmeralda, urgent business made it necessary that I should 

 proceed after my arrival in Fort Sao Joaquim without delay to Pirara. 

 I could neither ride nor walk, and the rivers were then so low that 

 it proved impossible to ascend the Tacutu in a larger canoe : a small 

 hunting-craft, which afforded sufficient room to stretch myself hori- 

 zontally, and which could be dragged by main force over shallows 

 and sand-banks, offered the only means for executing my design. 



We were thus toiling one morning through a small channel, bor- 

 dered on both sides by sand-banks, when we observed before us a 

 pack of Otters. Our canoe was immediately drawn across, which thus 

 completely barricaded the outlets ; while some swift-footed Indians, 

 armed with bludgeons, cut off their retreat by the entrance. The 

 channel expanded and deepened in the middle, and this small basin 

 became now the stronghold of the Otters, into which the Indians 

 rushed for attack ; but in spite of their exertions, perhaps inti- 

 midated by their furious defence, the adult Otters all escaped, 

 except one, which was now completely hemmed in, and which by 

 every stratagem attempted to escape its assailants. It now plunged 

 into the water, sank under, re-appeared, sought its safety on shore, 



