314 WILD ANIMALS. 



again disappear beneath tlie surface. In fact it appears almost as 

 much at home in the water as the hippopotamus, and seeks refuge 

 therein when pursued or in danger as the place in which it feels 

 the greatest safety. 



Travellers easily recognize the paths they make, and frequently 

 select them for their own use as affording the easiest passage 

 through the woods. From the description of the animal's habits, 

 as given by M. de la Borde, and quoted by BuflFon, it is requisite 

 for persons to beware of these beasts in the forests, and especially 

 to avoid pitching a camp on their paths, for the animals never 

 turn aside but move briskly on, and without intending mischief 

 dash violently against every obstacle in their course. " The dis- 

 tricts bordering the upper parts of the rivers in Guiana," he writes, 

 " are inhabited by a considerable number of tapirs, and the banks 

 of the waters are intersected by paths which they wear ; and so 

 beaten are they that the most desert places appear, at first sight, 

 as if peopled and frequented by human beings." 



" A traveller informed me that he had nearly fallen a victim to 

 his want of experience respecting their beaten tracks. On his 

 arrival in the country he had attached his hammock to two trees, 

 in which to pass the night ; it happened, however, that his 

 hammock passed across one of these beaten ways. About ten 

 o'clock in the evening he heard a loud noise in the forest ; it was 

 occasioned by a tapir on his route : he had just time to throw 

 himself out of his hammock and stand close against a tree; the 

 animal did not stop, but tossed the hammock into the branches 

 and bruised him as he stood ; then, without turning aside from its 

 path, it passed in the midst of some negroes who were sleeping on 

 the ground near a large fire, without doing them any injury." 



Sometimes during rain it is said to leave its den even at mid- 

 day. " On such occasions," one writer stajpes, " it proceeds to the 

 river or the adjacent swamp, where it delights to wallow in the 

 mud after the manner of hogs, and often for hours together. 

 Unlike the hog, however, the tapir is a cleanly animal. After 

 wallowing it never returns to its den until it has first plunged into 

 the clear water and washed the mud thoroughly from its skin. It 

 usually travels at a trot, but when hard pressed it can gallop. Its 



