146 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



jaguars, a faint ho|>e of recovering liini induced UH, in return! 11.1; from tin- mission of Esmeralda through 

 the swarms of mnsqtiitoes by which it is infested, to spend another nitwit at the .spot where we hail so 

 long sought him in vain. \V~e heard the cries of the jaguar probably the very individual which \ve 

 suspected of the deed extremely near to us ; and, as the clouded sky made astronomical observations 

 im|M>s.sible, we passed part of the uight in making our interpreter repeat to us the accounts given by 

 our native boat's crew of the tigers of the country. The black jaguar was, they said, not unfreqnent ly 

 found there : it is the largest and most bloodthirsty variety, with the black spots scarcely distinguishable. 

 on its deep-brown skin. It lives at the foot of the mountains of Maraguaca and Unturan. One of the 

 Indians of the Durimund tribe then related to us that jaguars are often led, by their love of wandering 

 and by their rapaeitv, to lose themselves in such impenetrable parts of the forest, that they can no 

 longer hunt along the ground, and live, instead, in the trees, where they are the terror of the families 

 of monkeys and the kinkajou." * 



The proprietor of a farm told Humboldt, when visiting a small farm, the Conuco of Bermudez, 

 opposite tlie Bisco del Cuchivano, that the latter, or crevice, was inhabited by jaguars. They passed 

 the day in caverns, and roamed around human habitations at night. Being well fed, they grew there 

 to the length of six feet. One of them had, during the preceding year, devoured a horse belonging 

 to the farm, lie dragged his prey, 011 a fine moonlight night, across the savannah, to the foot of a 

 silk cotton-tree of an enormous size. The groans of the dying horse awoke the slaves of the farm, who 

 went out armed with lances and long-bladed knives. The jaguar, crouching over his prey, calmly 

 waited their approach, and fell only after a long and obstinate resistance. 



On one occasion, in his travels, where the bushes were thickest, the horses of the party were 

 frightened by the yell of an animal that seemed to follow them closely. It was a large jaguar, which 

 had roamed for three years among the neighbouring mountains. He had constantly escaped the pur- 

 suits of the boldest hunters, and had earned off horses and mules from the midst of inelosures ; but, 

 having no want of food, had not yet attacked men. The negro who conducted the travellers uttered 

 wild cries, expecting, by these means, to frighten the jaguar but his efforts were ineffectual. 



At another time, Humboldt says: "Whilst picking up some spangles of mica agglomerated 

 together in the sand, I discovered the recent footsteps of a jaguar, easily distinguishable from their form 

 and size. The animal had gone towards the forest, and, turning my eyes on that side, I found mvself 

 within eighty paces of a jaguar that was lying under the thick foliage of a silk cotton-tree. No tiger 

 had ever appeared to me so large. I was extremely alarmed, yet sufficiently master 1 of myself and my 

 motions to enable me to follow the advice the Indians had so often given us as to how we were to act 

 in such cases. 



"I continued to walk on without running, avoided moving my arms, and I thought I observed 

 that the jaguar's attention was fixed on a herd of capybarast which was crossing the river. I then 

 began to return, making a large circuit towards the edge of the water. As the distance increased, I 

 thought I might accelerate my pace. How often was I tempted to look back, in order to assure myself 

 that I was not pursued ! Happily, I yielded very tardily to this desire. The jaguar had remained 

 motionless. These enormous cats with spotted robes are so well fed in countries abounding with capy- 

 baras, pecaries, and deer, that they rarely attack men. I arrived out of breath, and related my ad\ -n 

 ture to the Indians ; but they appeared very little interested with my story." They went, as soon as 

 they had loaded their guns, in pursuit of the jaguar ; but he was gone. 



The tigers, or jaguars, enter the village at Atures, and devour the swine of the poor Indians. One 

 day, two of their children a boy and a girl about eight or nine years of age, were seated on the 

 grass near it, in the middle of a savannah. At two o'clock in the afternoon, a jaguar issued from the 

 forest, and approached the children, bounding around them ; sometimes he hid himself in the high 

 grass, sometimes he sprang forward, his back bent, his head hung down in the manner of our cats. 

 'I'll- li' I le boy seemed to be sensible of his danger only when the jaguar, with one of his paws, gave him 

 .some blows on the head. These blows, at first slight, became ruder and ruder; the claws of the 

 .jaguar wounded the ehild, and the blood flowed freely. The little girl then took the branch of a live, 

 strurk the animal, and it (led from her. The Indians ran up at the cries of the children, and saw the 



* Cercoleptes caudivolrulus. (See vol. i., page 353.) f Vol. i., page 240. 



