1834.] THE PUMA. 257 



sea-coast, whore a rich Hacienclero gave us lodgings. I stayed here 

 the two ensuing days, and although very unwell, managed to collect 

 from the tertiary formation some marine shells. 



1tli. Our course was now directed towards Valparaiso, which 

 with great difficulty I reached on the 27th, and was there confined 

 to my bed till the end of October. During this time I was an 

 inmate in Mr. Cor field's house, whose kindness to me I do not 

 know how to express. 



I will here add a few observations on some of the animals and 

 birds of Chile. The Puma, or South American Lion, is not 

 uncommon. This animal has a wide geographical range; being 

 found from the equatorial forests, throughout the deserts of Pata- 

 gonia, as far south as the clamp and cold latitudes (53 to 54) of 

 Tierra del Fuego. I have seen its footsteps in the Cordillera of 

 central Chile, at an elevation of at least 10,000 feet. In La Plata 

 the puma preys chiefly on deer, ostriches, bizcacha, and other small 

 quadrupeds; it there seldom attacks cattle or horses, and most 

 rarely man. In Chile, however, it destroys many young horses and 

 cattle, owing probably to the scarcity of other quadrupeds : I heard, 

 likewise, of two men and a woman who had been thus killed. It 

 is asserted that the puma always kills its prey by springing on the 

 shoulders, and then drawing back the head with one of its paws, 

 until the vertebrae break : I have seen in Patagonia the skeletons 

 of guanacos, with their necks thus dislocated. 



The puma, after eating its fill, covers the carcass with many 

 large bushes, and lies down to watch it. This habit is often the 

 cause of its being discovered ; for the condors wheeling in the air 

 every now and then descend to partake of the feast, and being 

 angrily driven away, rise all together on the wing. The Chileno 

 Guaso then knows there is a lion watching his prey the word is given 

 and men and dogs hurry to the chase. Sir F. Head says that a 

 Gaucho in the Pampas, upon merely seeing some condors wheeling 

 in the air, cried " A lion ! " I could never myself meet with any one 

 who pretended to such powers of discrimination. It is asserted 

 that, if a puma has once been betrayed by thus watching the 

 carcass, and has then been hunted, it never resumes this habit ; but 

 that, having gorged itself, it wanders far away. The puma is easily 

 killed. In an open country, it is first entangled with the bolas, 

 then lazoed, and dragged along the ground till rendered insensible. 



s 



