54 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



agouti) left us in the middle of our meal and darted 

 into the forest with loud yelps. Frangois followed 

 them, encouraging them with peculiar cries ; for these 

 mountaineers have a sympathetic understanding with 

 all animate objects about them, and can guide, hie on 

 and recall their dogs simply by varying their voice. 

 Francois urged them on, but in a few minutes they 

 came to a stand-still, and their excited yelps assured 

 us that whatever they were pursuing was brought to 

 bay. We thought they had an agouti — a small ani- 

 mal, in size between a rabbit and a woodchuck — but 

 the execrations of Francois a little later, which pre- 

 ceded his appearance from the deep shade, prepared 

 us for the unwonted sight, in these wilds, of a wild 

 cat. It was not a wild cat in the true sense of the 

 word — not a Lynx rttfus — being only a " chat mar on " 

 — a cat of the domesticated species run wild. It was 

 gray in color, striped with black, and larger and more 

 strongly made than the cats of the coast, who do not 

 have to forage for a living; showing how, in time, a 

 new species might be possibly the result of this change 

 of life. It lives in the deep woods, preying upon 

 small birds, lizards and crabs, and is as savage and 

 untamable as any specimen of the genus to be found 

 in American back-woods. My men skinned it at my 

 request and wrapped the skin in a plantain leaf, to be 

 hung up until our return. The most weird thing 

 about this animal was the eye ; the iris yellow, chang- 

 ing to green, but seen glowering from darkness it was 

 red — blood-red — red as fire, that glaring, glassy red 

 which I have seen in the panther, and which makes 

 the wW&fcIidce so terrible to face in their lairs. 



We had here to climb the sides of a steep gorge, the 



