482 The Andes and the Amazons. 



FORMIDABLE ANIMALS. 



After two journeys across the continent, my experience 

 in meeting with venomous snakes and lurking wild beasts 

 is so limited that I find it impossible to make a frightful 

 paragraph nnder this head. The conclusion in my own 

 mind is that my experience is due, not to my good luck, 

 but to their absence. 



Pumas, Jaguars, and Tiger-cats slink through the dense 

 forest, and are hunted for their skins. But the one, soli- 

 tary live specimen which I saw in South America was in 

 the arms of its owner — tame as a kitten!* Bates, after 

 eleven years of residence, met only two. The Indians 

 call the Jaguar " The Devil's Beast," and speak of nine 

 kinds. The black is the most formidable animal on the 

 continent, and it is dangerous to meet one alone. They 

 are most common up the river. They are hunted by 

 strings of Indians shouting and driving the game before 

 them into a narrow strip of land. 



Alligators, or Caymans, are very common, except on the 

 Lower Amazons. There are three or four kinds, of which 

 the largest, called " Jacare - nassu," is twenty feet long. 

 On land it waddles like a duck; but in the water it is 

 agile and cunning. It can count more victims than any 

 other animal in the valley. The vulnerable part is a 

 small spot behind the eyes. Electric Eels abound, partic- 

 ularly in the stagnant bays of the Brazilian rivers. The 

 electric organs are along each side of the lower part of 

 the tail. I have seen, also, hosts of leeches in the Negro. 

 The natives accuse a slender Silurid fish {Vandellia) of 



* Brazilians, especially half-castes, have a passion for tamed animals. They 

 pet not only monkeys and parrots, but also the tapir, peccary, deer, paca, 

 agouti, macaw, curassow, toucan, and iguana. The Felidai of South America 

 generally have spotted skins, while their relations in North America seldom 

 have. 



