188 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



night since we had entered the Essequibo. The sound 

 was awfully fine. Sometimes it was in the immediate 

 Roaring of neighbourhood ; at other times it was far 

 the Tigers. off, and echoed amongst the hills like dis- 

 tant thunder. 



It may, perhaps, not be amiss to observe here, that 

 when the word Tiger is used, it does not mean the 

 Bengal tiger. It means the Jaguar, whose skin is 

 beautifully spotted, and not striped like that of the 

 tiger in the East. It is, in fact, the tiger of the new 

 world, and receiving the name of tiger from the dis- 

 coverers of South America, it has kept it ever since. 

 It is a cruel, strong, and dangerous beast, but not so 

 courageous as the Bengal tiger. 



We now baited a shark-hook with a large fish, and 

 put it upon a board about a yard long, and one foot 

 broad, which we had brought on purpose. This board 

 was carried out in the canoe, about forty yards into the 

 river. By means of a string, long enough to reach the 

 bottom of the river, and at the end of which string was 

 fastened a stone, the board was kept, as it were, at 

 anchor. One end of the new rope I had bought in 

 town was reeved through the chain of the shark-hook, 

 and the other end fastened to a tree on the sand-bank. 



It was now an hour .after sunset. The sky was 

 cloudless, and the moon shone beautifully bright. 

 There was not a breath of wind in the heavens, and 

 the river seemed like a large plain of quicksilver. 

 Every now and then a huge fish would strike and 

 plunge in the water ; then the owls and goatsuckers 

 would continue their lamentations, and the sound of 

 these was lost in the prowling tiger's growl. Then all 

 was still again and silent as midnight. 



