A TAPIR-HUNT 129 



They vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and 

 crocodiles in different seas and rivers vary. 



On the morning of January 9th we started out for 

 a tapir-hunt. Tapirs are hunted with canoes, as they 

 dwell in thick jungle and take to the water when 

 hounds follow them. In this region there were ex- 

 tensive papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from 

 the river, and often the tapirs fled to these for refuge, 

 throwing off" the hounds. In these places it was exceed- 

 ingly difficult to get them ; our best chance was to keep 

 to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the 

 direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to 

 be heading. We started in four canoes. Three of them 

 were Indian dugouts, very low in the water. The fourth 

 was our Canadian canoe, a beauty ; light, safe, roomy, 

 made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. 

 Colonel Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in 

 this canoe, together with two paddlers. The paddlers 

 were natives of the poorer class. They were good men. 

 The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood ; the 

 steersman was of nearly pure negro blood, and was 

 evidently the stronger character and better man of the 

 two. The other canoes carried a couple oi fazendeiros, 

 ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their 

 dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half- 

 caste paddlers, and the fazendeiros, who were of nearly 

 pure white blood, also at times paddled vigorously. 

 All were dressed in substantially similar clothes, the 

 difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer 

 men or labourers, were in tatters. In the canoes no 

 man wore anything save a shirt, trousers, and hat, the 

 feet being bare. On horseback they wore long leather 

 leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible 

 boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough 



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