EXPLANATORY INDEX, 399 



that curious appearance which I mentioned in an earlier 

 chapter, of green glass wheels with rapidly revolving spokes." 

 The leaves are sometimes twenty-five feet or more in length, 

 and their stems are triangular. AVhen diied, they ai-e won- 

 derfully light, strong and elastic, and are often cut into lengths 

 and imported to England as walking-sticks. When young, 

 the tree has scarcely any stem, the leaves springing almost 

 directly from the ground. These trees flourish best on sand 

 or gravel. 



Stedman describes the young leaves as diverging from each 

 other like the flaming fuse of a shell. 



CouGUAE {Leopa/rdus concolor). — It is sometimes misnamed 

 the American lion, and sometimes the panther, just as the 

 jaguar goes by the name of tiger. In some places it is called 

 the deer- tiger. Mr. C. B. Brown had a curious adventure 

 with one of these animals : — 



" One morning, whilst returning to camp along the portage 

 path that we were cutting at T\'onobobo falls, I walked faster 

 than the men, and got some two hundred yards in advance. 

 As I rose the slope of an uneven p'ec-e of giound, I saw a 

 large puma {Fdis co/i^olor) advancing along the other side of 

 the rise towards me, with its nose down on the ground. The 

 moment I saw it I stopped ; and at the same instant it tossed 

 up its head and seeing me also came to a stand. With its 

 body half crouched, its head erect, and its eyes round and 

 black, from its pupils having expanded in the dusky light, it 

 looked at once a noble and an appalling sight. I glanced 

 back along our wide path to see if any of my men were 

 coming, as at the moment I felt that it was not well to be 

 alone without some weapon of defence, and I knew that one 

 of them had a gun ; but nothing could I see. As long as I 

 did not move the puma remained motionless also, and thus we 

 stood, some fifteen yards apart, eying one another cui-iously. 

 I had heard that the human voice is potent in scaring most 

 wild beasts, and feeling that the time had arrived to do some- 

 thing desperate, I waved my arms in the air and shouted 



