IIo THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
bers, the vigilance of any one animal will warn the whole of 
approaching danger, but stray individuals are more easily caught 
off their guard. 
It seems that the occasional functioning of the glands provides 
the necessary scent-trail to enable their large numbers to remain 
in close contact when progressing through thick jungle. 
It is an interesting fact that all the ground-dwelling mammals 
of the coastal forests are excellent swimmers, though this is only 
natural seeing that the region is interspersed with wide rivers and 
numerous creeks and is subject to inundations. It is not an uncom- 
mon thing for a herd of peccaries, numbering several hundred, to 
attempt to swim across one of the jungle rivers, and as they may 
be half a mile or more wide, the crossing will be a long one. If it 
happens that an Indian is canoeing somewhere near the scene, or 
worse still, if the attempted crossing is in sight of an Indian vil- 
lage, a cry will go up and all and sundry will give chase, clubbing 
as many animals as possible before they are able to gain the safety 
of the opposite bank. They are, as is the most ferocious land- 
mammal, quite defenceless while swimming, so are at the mercy 
of man. The Indians preserve the flesh by smoking it over a 
babracot, or wooden grid, which takes about forty-eight hours. The 
wood fire is kept going in one of their huts and it is the duty of 
one of the old women to get out of her hammock at odd times of 
the night to keep the fire burning. 
Once I canoed along the edge of the Mazaruni River, nosing my 
way up small tree-canopied creeks looking for the King Hum- 
ming-bird, and passed some Akawai Indians who had a half- 
grown jaguar in their canoe. They had caught it that morning 
swimming in the Mazaruni, evidently by lassoing it. There was 
a rope round its neck, and its front legs were tied to its hind 
ones so that the beast could not struggle. 
On another occasion an Indian brought me a Three-toed Sloth 
which he said he had found floating down the same river. With 
the native’s usual fear of slow-moving animals, he brought me 
this creature on the end of a pole. The sloth was blown out so 
much that I took it to be gravid, but in a few days it got back 
to its normal size, so I assume that it had swallowed a lot of water 
which caused the leaves in its stomach to ferment. I have never 
