78 PERILS OF AN HUNTER. 



malignity; and uttering at the same time a terrible 

 yell, he threw himself into the attitude of springing. 

 If the hunter had hoped for one moment that the 

 fierce creature, confused by his fall, might have 

 changed his intention, that hope now vanished. 

 Collecting, therefore, all his energies, upon the des- 

 perate hazard of a shot, he fired. The next moment 

 the creature seemed to dart with terrible fury upon 

 him; again the thought of home and family flashed 

 across his mind, for he knew not that the ball had 

 entered a vital part; and if it had not entered, all 

 hope of life was inevitably gone. But that gracious 

 Being, who had often protected him in scenes of 

 danger did not permit him to perish amid the lone- 

 liness of the forest. The convulsed form of the ter- 

 rific animal plunged heavily upon the earth, and 

 rolling along the leaves which had fallen from the 

 trees, dyed them with a copious stream from his heart, 

 which the unerring ball had reached as he was in 

 the very act of bounding. The dog now darted 

 furiously upon the monster, but no attempt was 

 made to repel the attack, no limb was moved or con- 

 vulsed, all sense and feeling had departed, the 

 creature was quite dead. 



The ferocious Jaguar, or Tiger of the New World, 

 (Felis jaguar,} abounds in Paraguay and Guiana, 

 in Mexico and the country of the Amazons, where 

 he makes great havoc among the flocks, and is even 

 formidable to armed men. M. Sonini de Manon- 

 cour informs us that in passing through a vast ex- 

 tent of wooded country, his party were harassed for 

 two nights by a Jaguar, which continued to follow 

 them, notwithstanding a large fire that was kept 



