CHAP. Ill] A JAGUAR-HUNT 75 



any trust, and they were led in leashes by the two 

 trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the best 

 one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, 

 half-starved creatures with prick ears and a look of 

 furtive wildness. 



As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the 

 ranch-house, the stars were brilliant and the Southern 

 Cross hung well up in the heavens, tilted to the right. 

 The landscape was spectral in the light of the waning 

 moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs 

 splashed across, an alligator, the jacar^-tinga, some five 

 feet long, floated unconcernedly among the splashing 

 hoofs and paws ; evidently at night it did not fear us. 

 Hour after hour we shogged along. Then the night 

 grew ghostly with the first dim grey of the dawn. The 

 sky had become overcast. The sun rose red and angry 

 through broken clouds ; his disc flamed behind the tall, 

 slender columns of the palms, and lit the waste fields 

 of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. 

 The birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets, screamed 

 at us and chattered at us as we rode by. Ibis called 

 with wailing voices, and the plovers shrieked as they 

 wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds, 

 where white lilies floated on the water and thronging 

 lilac-flowers splashed the green marsh with colour. 



At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet 

 ground, we came on fresh jaguar tracks. Both the 

 jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They were un- 

 leashed and galloped along the trail, while the other 

 dogs noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right 

 through the marsh. Evidently the jaguar had not the 

 least distaste for water. Probably it had been hunting 

 for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight through 

 ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous. 



