I 



30 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



bushes from the windward side. When the cougar broke 

 from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his 

 bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she 

 was struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second 

 bolas. The doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not 

 serious. 



Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped 

 on the same lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of 

 a basaltic cliff. He was in company with four soldiers, 

 with whom he had travelled from the Strait of Magellan. 

 In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man and 

 the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where 

 they were lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out 

 of the firelight into the darkness. It had sprung on a sol- 

 dier named Marcelino Huquen while he was asleep, and 

 had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man was so 

 wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he 

 was not injured. The puma was never found or killed. 



About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's 

 party, a Swede named Arneberg, was attacked in similar 

 fashion. The doctor was not with him at the time. Mr. 

 Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San Martin. 

 The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth, 

 breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this 

 puma also escaped. 



The doctor stated that in this particular locality the 

 Indians, who elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, 

 never let their women go out after wood for fuel unless 

 two or three were together. This was because on several 

 occasions women who had gone out alone were killed by 

 pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at 



