ANECDOTE OF A JAGUAR. 21 1 



able part of tlie water is lost by passing into subterranean CHAP.XVIII. 



cavities, independently of that which disappears by 



being dispersed in the atmosphere. Numberless holes tiieiivci-bc<l. 



and sinuosities are formed in the crevices by the friction 



of the sand and quartz pebbles ; but he does not considci 



that any great change is effected in the general form of 



the cataracts by the action of the water, the granite being 



too hard to be worn away to a great extent. The 



Indians assert that the stony barriers preserve the same 



aspect ; but that the partial torrents into which the 



river divides itself are changed in their direction, and 



carry sometimes more sometimes less water towards one 



or other bank. 



When the rush of the cataracts is heard in the plain Noise of tiie 

 that surrounds the mission of Atures, one imagines he is cataracts. 

 near a coast skirted by reefs and breakers. The noise 

 is thrice as loud by night as by day. This circumstance 

 had struck the padre and the Indians, and Humboldt 

 attributes it to the cessation of the sun's action, wliich is 

 productive of numberless currents and undulations of 

 the air, impeding the progress of sound by presenting 

 spaces of different density. 



The jaguars, which abound every where pn the Orinoco, N„j„ber of 

 are so numerous here that they come into the village, ^^^ jaguars, 

 and devour the pigs of the poor Indians, The mission- 

 ary related a striking instance of the f;imiliarity of these 

 animals : — " Two Indian children, a boy and girl eight 

 or nine years of age, were sitting among the grass, near 

 the village of Atures, in the midst of a savannah. It sirrruiar 

 was two in the afternoon when a jaguar issued from the sport 

 forest and approached the children, gamboling around 

 them ; sometimes concealing itself among the long grass, 

 and again springing forward, with his back curved and 

 his head lowered, as is usual with our cats. Tlie little 

 boy was unaware of the danger in which he was placed, 

 and became sensible of it only when the jaguar struck 

 him on the head with one of his paws. Tiie blows thus 

 inflicted were at first slight, but gradually became ruder. 

 The claws of the jaguar wounded the child, and blood 

 s 



