14 DEER. HARES. 



the country both by day and night, often sleep- 

 ing in the bush in the wildest districts, without 

 any apprehension of its attacks : they describe 

 it, indeed, as pusillanimous more prone to 

 shun than attack mankind and ascribe its oc- 

 casional attacks to a state allied to madness. 

 The strong dogs of the country attack the puma 

 with much animosity, and when the latter ani- 

 mal finds his affairs in an unfavourable condi- 

 tion, he ascends a tree, and from its height 

 watches his yelling foes beneath. While his at- 

 tention is thus directed, an Indian will some- 

 times contrive to cast a lasso round his neck, 

 and, fastening an end of the thong to the tree, 

 twitch him from the bough, and leave him 

 hanging, strangled by the noose. 



Several kinds of deer frequent the dense and 

 more sequestered thickets. One of these, which 

 we encountered in the depth of the jungle, was 

 a beautiful creature ; in size rather larger than 

 the fallow deer ; the livery a pale iron-gray ; the 

 face marked with black spots on a pale ground ; 

 the head adorned with a noble pair of tall and 

 spreading antlers. Many young fawns, also, 

 which had been captured, were running about 

 the houses of the settlement, perfectly tame. 

 The hares we noticed here were much larger 

 than those of England ; their ears are of 



