76 A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY 



where it must now and then have had to swim for 

 a stroke or two. It had also wandered through the 

 island-hke stretches of tree-covered land, the trees at 

 this point being mostly palms and tarumans ; the taru- 

 man is almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage 

 and a fruit like an olive. The pace quickened, the 

 motley pack burst into yelUng and howling ; and then 

 a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game 

 had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. 

 The former proved to be the case. The dogs had entered 

 a patch of tall tree-jungle, and as we cantered up through 

 the marsh we saw the jaguar high among the forked 

 limbs of a taruman-tree. It was a beautiful picture— 

 the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly 

 shone as it snarled defiance at the pack below. I did 

 not trust the pack ; the dogs were not stanch, and if 

 the jaguar came down and started I feared we might 

 lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy 

 yards. I was using my favourite rifle, the little Spring- 

 field with which I have kUled most kinds of African 

 game, from the Uon and elephant down ; the bullets 

 were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked 

 lead. At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand 

 through the branches, and, although it staggered to its 

 feet, it went but a score of yards before it sank down, 

 and when I came up it was dead under the palms, with 

 three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it. 



The jaguar is the king of South American game, 

 ranking on an equality with the noblest beasts of the 

 chase of North America, and behind only the huge and 

 fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game 

 of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. 

 It was heavier and more powerful than a full-grown 

 male cougar, or African panther or leopard. It was 



