WILD ANIMALS OF THE PLAINS. 



251 



number of snorting alligators above and below us. The stream is nar- 

 row, without current, making it difficult to tell which was up or down. 

 The banks were twenty feet high, and yet they are overflowed in the 

 wet season. The water was dark colored, though clear. 



At the house of the ferryman we met his old Indian wife, who culti- 

 vated a few cotton-bushes about her hut, with some tobacco plants. 

 The cotton is produced from a bush eight to ten feet high. It is diffi- 

 cult to find a person who has noticed how long these bushes will pro- 

 duce without replanting. The impression is seven years. The same 

 tobacco plant yields from two to three years. The hut was shaded by 

 a number of orange trees, from which the woman gathered us most 

 delicious fruit. There is nothing like them on the coast of Brazil nor 

 at the Cape de Verde islands. The skins are thin, almost bursting with 

 the juice. The trees were as large as a moderate-sized apple tree, and 

 loaded with oranges, while the sweet blossoms bloomed for another crop. 

 Plantains form the bread of this country ; near every house the trees 

 are found. This hut stands on the northern boundary of what are 

 called the Plains of Loreto. Here the land is somewhat higher ; the path 

 is smooth, and as the afternoon is passing, we hurry on. To our right 

 a drove of cattle look up ; fierce-looking bulls stand between us and 

 their mates ; they are not »very amiable fellows, and often attack the 

 lonely traveller ; but their numbers have been reduced by the thieving 

 Creoles from Santa Cruz, who come here and take them off by droves. 

 There was a time when sixty thousand head of cattle were counted on 

 these plains. As the doe leaped through the grass, following its young, 

 the peccary — a sort of wild hog — jumped up under the horses' noses, 

 and with his civilized grunt and short tail, rushed along the same path. 

 Tigers are found in great numbers ; their skins are sold in the market 

 of Trinidad. As we rode by a cluster of trees on our right, we heard 

 a bellowing bull, and saw the wild cattle rushing to his aid. I was told 

 the tiger leaps from his hiding-place in the grass, catches the bull by 

 the ear, fastens his fore-claws securely in the neck and his hind-claws to 

 the fore-shoulder; his head is then just behind the horns of the bull, 

 and his tail hangs down by the side of t'he fore-leg. In this position 

 the tiger commences to cut into the great vessels of the neck, while the 

 bull runs through the pampa, his head high up in the air, bellowing 

 with pain. Unless the herd who follow to help, gather round and attack 

 the tiger, he soon brings the prey upon his knees. The suffering animal 

 bleeds to death surrounded by his kind, while the panting tiger prowls 

 about at a short distance, knowing that when the bull dies the cattle 

 will disperse, and he can then enjoy the feast These tigers sometimes 



