78 Naturalist at Large 



the frightful curses which were heaped upon him.) I spoke 

 a little Spanish and approached the mozo, who answered, 

 "Tell the General that the bath water is sweet and nice. 

 Nobody has been in it but those two young North Amer- 

 ican ladies, and they use such sweet-smelling soap." The 

 General, however, insisted that he preferred clean water, 

 and finally he got it. 



When we reached Panama the Gorgas family was so 

 kind to us that we felt we had reached home. The General 

 ordered a place fixed up for me to work in the old Board of 

 Health Laboratory. And one event of our stay was suf- 

 ficiently exciting to record here. I had one of the first-class, 

 all-wool, yard-wide frights of my entire life. Through Dr. 

 Gorgas I met Mr. Le Prince, one of his most famous mos- 

 quito sleuths. Le Prince was a keen sportsman. One eve- 

 ning he suggested that we go deer hunting across the canal 

 out in the country, which I suppose now would be desig- 

 nated as inland from La Venta Beach. He had an extra 

 headhght for me and we borrowed an extra gun. Tracks in 

 the mud showed that there were plenty of deer, but for 

 some reason we did not succeed in shining a single pair of 

 eyes. We walked and walked. Finally, far ahead down an 

 old road, in the scrubby woods, I saw a pair of blazing orbs. 

 I knew mighty well they were not the eyes of a deer but 

 what they were I could not guess. I strongly suspected a 

 jaguar. 



I stood looking at them, when all of a sudden it became 

 obvious that they were approaching me very rapidly in- 

 deed, rapidly and soundlessly. In less time than it takes to 

 tell it, they rushed at my light and swept by over my shoul- 

 der, my face being fanned with the air moved by the wings 



