DANGERS OF THE PIRANHA 51 



bones. Whether he had been drowned, and the fishes had 

 then eaten his body, or whether they had killed him, it 

 was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes, 

 getting in under them, which made it seem likely that 

 there had been no struggle. These man-eating fish are 

 a veritable scourge in the waters they frequent. But it 

 must not be understood by this that the piranhas— or, 

 for the matter of that, the New World caymans and 

 crocodiles — ever become such dreaded foes of man as, 

 for instance, the man-eating crocodiles of Africa. 

 Accidents occur, and there are certain places where 

 swimming and bathing are dangerous ; but in most places 

 the people swim freely, although they are usually careful 

 to find spots they believe safe, or else to keep together 

 and make a splashing in the water. 



During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with 

 various experiences with wild creatures. The Paraguayan 

 caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to man ; but 

 they do sometimes become man-eaters, and should be 

 destroyed whenever the opportunity offers. The huge 

 caymans and crocodiles of the Amazon are far more 

 dangerous, and the Colonel knew of repeated instances 

 where men, women, and children had become their 

 victims. Once, while dynamiting a stream for fish for 

 his starving party, he partially stunned a giant anaconda, 

 which he killed as it crept slowly off. He said that it 

 was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen 

 even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute, if 

 hungry, would readily attack a full-grown man. Twice 

 smaller anacondas had attacked his dogs ; one was 

 carried under water — for the anaconda is a water-loving 

 serpent — but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten 

 by a jararaca ; he killed the venomous snake, but was 

 not discovered and brought back to camp until it was too 



