CAWO DE LA TIGRERA. 157 



of the crocodiles in the water, and of the tigers on land. 

 It is difficult to conceive, how, being thus persecuted by 

 two powerful enemies, they become so numerous ; but they 

 breed with the same rapidity as the little cames or guinea- 

 pigs, which come to us from Brazil. 



We stopped below the mouth of the Cafio de la Tigrera, 

 in a sinuosity called la Vuelta del Joval, to measure the 

 velocity of the water at its surface. It was not more than 

 3'2 feet* in a second, which gives 2'56 feet for the mean velo- 

 city. The height of the barometer indicated barely a slope of 

 seventeen inches in a mile of nine hundred and fifty toises. 

 The velocity is the simultaneous effect of the slope of the 

 ground, and the accumulation of the waters by the swelling 

 of the upper parts of the river. We were again surrounded 

 by chiguires, which swim like dogs, raising their heads and 

 necks above the water. We saw with surprise a large 

 crocodile on the opposite shore, motionless, and sleeping in 

 the midst of these nibbling animals. It awoke at the ap- 

 proach of our canoe, and went into the water slowly, without 

 frightening the chiguires. Our Indians accounted for this 

 indifference by the stupidity of the animals, but it is more 

 probable that the chiguires know by long experience, that 

 the crocodile of the Apure and the Orinoco does not attack 

 upon land, unless he finds the object he would seize imme- 

 diately in his way, at the instant when he throws himself 

 into the water. 



Near the Joval nature assumes an awful and extremely wild 

 aspect. We there saw the largest jaguar we had ever met 

 with. The natives themselves were astonished at its pro- 

 digious length, which surpassed that of any Bengal tiger I 

 had ever seen in the museums of Europe. The animal lay 

 stretched beneath the shade of a large zamang.* It had 

 just killed a chiguire, but had not yet touched its prey, on 

 which it kept one of its paws. The zamuro vultures were 

 assembled in great numbers to devour the remains of the 

 jaguar's repast. They presented the most curious spectacle, 



* In order to measure the velocity of the surface of a river, I generally 

 measured on the beach a base of 250 feet, and observed with the chrono- 

 meter the time that a floating body, abandoned to the current, required 

 to reach this distance. 



t A species of mimosa. 



