A Jaguar-Hunt on the Taquary 79 



water and on the land along the edges of the swamps; 

 the papyrus was used only for cover, not for food. The 

 buck had two big scent-glands beside the nostrils ; in the 

 doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also 

 came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary ; 

 at the sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his 

 horse and took to his heels, explaining that the peccaries 

 would charge them, hamstring the horses, and kill the 

 riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the truculent 

 little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, 

 but never was able to catch sight of them. 



In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar- 

 hunters — ^merely ranch hands, who knew something of 

 the chase of the jaguar — ^who had been searching for 

 tracks, rode in with the information that he had found 

 fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles dis- 

 tant. Next morning we rose at two, and had started on 

 our jaguar-hunt at three. Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and 

 I, with the two trailers or jaguar-hunters, made up the 

 party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony, accus- 

 tomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass ; and we 

 were accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags 

 holding our lunch, who rode a long-horned trotting steer 

 which he managed by a string through its nostril and 

 lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy spear. 

 We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, 

 neither of which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were 

 the ranch dogs, which were well-nigh worthless, and 

 then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the occasion from 

 a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the 

 only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they 



