30 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



pleasant hour, made many notes, and revelled in 

 the contemplation of ocean's animated wonders. 



At length we thought it best to return to the 

 main object of our visit, hoping that the slumbers 

 of the " mound-leveller " were passed away. But 

 no, there the animal lay somnolent as before, and 

 not a muscle moved. We began to get im- 

 patient ; but plucked up good courage, and de- 

 termined to wait even to the latest moment. Our 

 resolution happily was soon rewarded. Leisurely, 

 as if irresolute and scarcely thoroughly awake, up 

 rose the stolid beast, the dread even of the ter- 

 rible jaguar, and after sniffing the air — not with 

 broad nostrils like the stag painted in the " Lady 

 of the Lake," but through little orifices at the end 

 of a long, slender, tapering snout, for such it at 

 first appeared — it moved forwards into full view. 

 Then it was that the contour and proportions of 

 this stranger from the swampy forests of Brazil 

 were revealed to our sight, and that a murmur of 

 surprise greeted its appearance. And well it 

 might be so, for strange and eccentric was its 

 aspect; it was such as would have enchanted 

 Fuseli. Let us, however, before entering into 

 details, here record our first impressions. 



Before our eyes stalked forth, with heavy and 

 deliberate steps, a creature of large size, taller or 

 quite as tall as a very fine Newfoundland dog, but 

 much longer in the proportion of the body to that 

 of its height. Its covering was coarse, long, griz- 

 zled hair ; a broad black stripe, narrowing as it 

 proceeds, passed obliquely from the chest over 

 each shoulder. The head, covered with close hair, 

 looked in its tout ensemble, from the thick deep 

 neck to its apex, like a long slender tube or pro- 

 boscis, in strange contrast with the stupendous 

 massiveness of the limbs. The eyes were small; 

 the ears, in a direct line and about one inch above 

 them, were very close and rather rounded, but so 

 little elevated, that their precise form was not im- 

 mediately obvious. A mane of very long hair rose 

 over the withers. The tail — how shall we de- 

 scribe it ? No Newfoundland dog, no setter, no 

 retriever, ever boasted of such a caudal append- 

 age; no, not even the famous dog of Alcibiades. 

 It was as long or longer than the whole body, and 

 was evidently stout and robust in bone and 

 muscle at the base. As the creature moved along, 

 it was held in a line with the body, sometimes a 

 little depressed, and at others a little elevated; 

 but, even when raised, its panache (plume does 

 not express the meaning) of densely-set, long, wiry 

 hairs, from the base to the apex, swept the floor. 

 The very weight of this alone, carried from the 

 base to the extremity of the lever, evidently indi- 

 cated the vast development of the lumbar and 

 supra-caudal muscles. No light feathery plume 

 was it ; but a massive, dropping, heavy fringe, 

 capable of being thrown like a thatch over the 

 body during repose. 



The fore feet of the animal were armed with 

 enormous hooked claws ; but these, being doubled 

 up close on the thick pad of the sole, were not at 

 first visible ; so that the fore feet looked like mere 

 stumps rather than like fully formed feet, as did 

 those of the hinder limbs. The gait was heavy, 

 but by no means slow or crawling ; indeed, the 

 animal is said to be capable of moving along with 

 considerable celerity. The whole contour exhi- 

 bited an appearance of great massiveness and 



enormous muscular power, especially in the neck, 

 chest, shoulders, and fore limbs ; while the claws 

 were well fitted for grappling, wrenching, and for 

 rending asunder the solid sun-baked mud walls of 

 the pyramids of the termite. 



Such were the generalities which forced them- 

 selves upon our notice. We will now proceed to 

 a few details. Of the stature of the animal we 

 have said enough. Let us begin with the head. 

 The skull of this strange creature is modelled on 

 the tubular principle. From the occiput (that is, 

 the back portion of the frame-work of the head) 

 runs out a long trumpet-like projection, composed 

 of the bones of the cranium and the jaws. This 

 long slender trumpet, or proboscis, incloses in its 

 singular development all the organs of senses, even 

 that of tact, or especial feeling ; for the nose, in 

 this as in other instances, is the organ of {ac- 

 tivity.* The eyes of the animal were small, on a 

 line with the cranial projection, and, as it appeared 

 to us, very inefficient by day-light. The iris, as 

 we saw it, seemed very narrow, and of a dark 

 hazel-brown, and the pupil minute ; but, when 

 the shadows of evening descend over the wooded 

 swamps of Brazil or Guiana, may not that pupil 

 expand into a dark orb, bounded only by the 

 little eyelids? Looking at the eyes with con- 

 sideration, we registered them in our mind as 

 organs formed for twilight or nocturnal vision. 

 Little use, indeed, did the animal make of them 

 when perambulating its apartments, as we shall 

 soon demonstrate. 



Now for the organs of hearing. We have de- 

 scribed their external figure and position, close 

 above the little eyes ; but what shall we say of 

 the animal's hearing power ? If sensibility to in- 

 vocations loudly uttered could have awakened the 

 sleeper through this medium, he must have re- 

 sponded to the call. " Seven sleepers" are recorded 

 in the works of the olden time ; surely this som- 

 nolent Brazilian, taking its siesta, might be put 

 down for the eighth : it slept as an athlete. When 

 aroused, however, it seemed even then almost 

 dead to sounds and exclamations; at least it 

 noticed them not, and they passed by it as the 

 idle wind. 



If sight was defective, and hearing obtuse, the 

 contrary appeared to be the case with the sense of 

 smell — a fact which indeed might be inferred even 

 from a consideration of the extension of the olfac- 

 tory organs, carried along the upper portion of the 

 tubular head from the space between the ears to 

 the two little narrow terminal slits which repre- 

 sent the nostrils. Ever and anon the animal ele- 

 vated its snout and sniffed the air, and when its 

 keeper, a most careful and obliging man, brought 

 in a pan of milk, it followed him about with a 

 stumping, bear-like gait, evidently directed rather 

 by the sense of smell than of vision to the vessel 

 which he carried in his hand. Moreover, it evi- 

 dently knew its attendant, and indicated, by pro- 

 jecting its snout to him when he at first entered 

 the apartment without anything in his hands, that 

 the recognition chiefly depended upon the sense of 

 smell. The animal allowed him to pat it, and 



* Tactivity means feeling, in contradistinction to 

 simple sensitiveness. For example, our hands are en- 

 dowed with tactivity ; our whole cutaneous surface with 

 sensitiveness. 



