184 Travels and Adventures 



more distant forests and live on the banks of the lakes, 

 or in the vicinity. Although the turtles are both 

 cunning and swift, hundreds of them annually fall a 

 prey to the stealthy jaguar, which loses no time in 

 scooping out every particle of flesh contained in its 

 horny shell, but still without breaking it open ; this 

 they succeed in doing by inserting their powerful 

 claws into the natural opening at each end of the 

 shell. Every night while I lodged in the huts on 

 the Santo Domingo we were disturbed by the roaring 

 of the jaguars. Sometimes one would howl all 

 night close to us ; occasionally two and even three 

 would call to each other from different parts of the 

 lake-side or the forest. The male and female are 

 easily distinguishable by their roar, in their natural 

 state in the woods the call of the female beincr more 

 prolonged and shrill than that of the male. 



I determined to try to rid ourselves of one or 

 more of these unwelcome visitors. There were only 

 two natives, however, in the settlement who were able 

 to help me in a jaguar hunt, but we had plenty of 

 dogs. The night before the proposed hunt we 

 noticed well the situation of the beasts, as the natives 

 know that the place where they howl at midnight 

 is where they may be sought for at daybreak. We 

 started away while it was dark, taking with us the 

 best dogs of the settlement, and arrived on the 



