IN DANGEE FKOM A JAGUAE. 127 



passed the niglit in the open air, upon the beach near 

 the island of Carizales. There were several Indian huts 

 in the neighbourhood, surrounded with plantations. 

 Their pilot assured them beforehand that they should 

 not hear the cries of the jaguar, which, when not ex- 

 tremely pressed by hunger, withdraws from places where 

 he does not reign unmolested. " Men put him out of 

 humour," said the people in the Missions. 



They stopped at noon the next day in a spot called 

 Algodonal. Leaving his companions while they drew the 

 boat ashore and were occupied in preparing their dinner, 

 Humboldt went along the beach to get a near view of a 

 group of crocodiles sleeping in the sun, and Ij^'ing in such 

 a manner as to have their tails resting on one another. 

 Some little herons, white as snow, walked along their 

 backs, and even upon their heads, as if passing over 

 trunks of trees. The crocodiles were of a greenish gray, 

 half covered with dried mud ; from their colour and im- 

 mobility they might have been taken for bronze statues. 

 This excursion had nearly proved fatal to him. He had 

 kept his eyes constantly turned towards the river ; but, 

 whilst picking up some spangles of mica agglomerated 

 together in the sand, he discovered the recent footsteps 

 of a tiger, easily distinguishable from their form and size. 

 The animal had gone towards the forest, and turning his 

 eyes on that side, he found himself within eighty paces 

 of a tiger that was lying under the thick foliage of a 

 ceiba. No tiger ever appeared to him so large- 

 He was extremely alarmed, yet sufficiently master of 

 himself and of his motions to enable him to follow the 

 advice which the Indians had so often given him as to 

 how he ousht to act in such cases. He continued to 



