138 UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS [chap, v 



different genera. It was much the most highly special- 

 ized of the two, and in the other continental regions 

 where both were fomid, the horse outlasted the tapir. 

 But in South America the tapir outlasted the horse. 

 From unknown causes the various genera and species 

 of horses died out, while the tapir has persisted. The 

 highly speciahzed, highly developed beasts, which repre- 

 sented such a full evolutionary development, died out, 

 while their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had 

 not developed, clung to life and throve ; and this, 

 although the direct reverse was occurring in North 

 America and in the Old World. It is one of the in- 

 numerable and at present insoluble problems in the 

 history of life on our planet. 



I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the 

 big white-lipped peccaries — white-Hpped being rather a 

 misnomer, as the entire under jaw and lower cheek are 

 white. They were said to be found on the other side 

 of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel 

 Rondon had sent out one of our attendants, an old 

 follower of his, a full-blood Parecis Indian, to look for 

 tracks. This was an excellent man, who dressed and 

 behaved just hke the other good men we had, and was 

 called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd 

 of thirty or forty cashadas, and the following morning 

 we started after them. 



On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather 

 too large a party, for one or two of the visiting fazen- 

 deiros came along with their dogs. I doubt whether 

 these men very much vdshed to overtake our game, 

 for the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is 

 sometimes dangerous to men). One of their number 

 frankly refused to come or to let his dogs come, explain- 

 ing that the fierce wild swine were " very badly brought 



