52 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



This kind of criticism, which seizes on a slight 

 inaccuracy in one passage, and totally ignores an 

 important statement in another — as, for instance, 

 that of the " great beast " seen in the woods — might 

 be extended to other portions of the book, and 

 Byron's entire narrative made to appear as purely 

 a work of the imagination as Peter "Wilkin's adven- 

 tures in those same antarctic seas. 



Mr. J. W. Boddam Whetham, in his work Across 

 Central America (1877), gives an anecdote of the 

 puma, which he heard at Sacluk, in Guatemala, and 

 which strangely resembles some of the stories I 

 have heard on the pampas. He writes : " The 

 following event, most extraordinary if true, is said 

 to have occurred in this forest to a mahogany-cutter, 

 who had been out mai-king trees. As he was re- 

 turning to his hut, he suddenly felt a soft body 

 pressing against him, and on looking down saw a 

 cougar, which, Avith tail erect, and purring like a 

 cat, twisted itself in and out of his legs, and glided 

 round him, turning up its fiei'oe eyes as if with 

 laughter. Horror-stricken and with faltering steps 

 he kept on, and the terrible animal still circled 

 about, now rolling over, and now touching him with 

 a paw like a cat playing with a mouse. At last the 

 suspense became too great, and Avith a loud shout 

 he struck desperately at the creature with his axo. 

 It bounded on one side and crouched snarling and 

 showing its teeth. Just as it was about to spring, 

 the man's companion, who had heard his call, 

 appeared in the distance, and with a growl the boast 

 vanished into the thick bushes." 



Now, after allowing for exaggeration, if there is 



