A YOUNG NATURALIST. 189 



signed to us to be quiet. I glanced down the stream, and 

 near a hole full of water, I dirfcovered an Agouara, or washer 

 racoon, squatted down, dipping its paws into the water, and 

 rubbing them together energetically. L'Encuerado fired ; it gave 

 a bound and fell over. A lizard it was which the animal was 

 washing before devouring— a peculiar and inexplicable habit to 

 which it owes its name. It had a gray coat, and a tapering 

 muzzle like that of an opossum. 



The Agouara {Procyon cancrivorus) is frequently met with in 

 Mexico. It is closely allied to the Bear family, but is much 

 smaller and more active : and is both carnivorous and insectivor- 

 ous. It climbs trees with ease, and whenever it takes up its 

 abode near any habitation, makes incessant raids upon poultry. 

 It is tamed without difiiculty, and will run to meet its master, 

 and seems to value his caresses ; yet, like the squirrel, which it 

 resembles in its vivacity, it will suddenly bite the hand of any 

 one who feeds it. The flesh of this animal is white, tender, and 

 savoury. 



L'Encuerado had dug up some dahlia roots, which he baked 

 under the ashes ; but either this food was not exactly to our 

 taste, or our still irritated palates could not appreciate its 

 delicacy. 



Night came on, and the sky was full of gray clouds violently 

 driven by the wind, although just round us the trees remained 

 quite motionless. It was now too late to construct a hut, and 

 we all stretched ourselves, without other covering than the canopy 

 of heaven, on beds of dry moss. 



I woke up perished with cold ; not a star appeared in the sky. 

 Of the uneasiness produced by the euphorbia plants, nothing 

 now remained but a sense of weight in the head, and a slight in- 

 flammation in the throat. I tried to go to sleep again, and fell at 

 length into a kind of painful torpor. I fancied I heard birds of 

 prey crying, and a roaring noise in the recesses of the forest. I 

 got up with a view of driving away this night-mare; but it 

 was not a dream ; the day was just breaking, and the birds were 

 welcoming its advent with many a clamorous note. A dull roar, 

 like that of a gale of wind rattling through a forest, resounded 



