4o6 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



by a broad transverse channel running between Baria 

 and another island called Quanaru. There is a small 

 sand-bank at the north-westerly point of Baria, called 

 Jacare ; we stayed here to dine and afterwards fished 

 with the net. A fine rain was still falling, and we had 

 capital sport, in three hauls taking more fish than our 

 canoe would conveniently hold. They were of two kinds 

 only, the Surubim and the Piraepieiia (species of Pime- 

 lodus), very handsome fishes four feet in length, with flat 

 spoon-shaped heads, and prettily-spotted and striped skins. 



On our way from Jacare to the mouth of the Teffe we 

 had a little adventure with a black tiger or jaguar. We 

 were paddling rapidly past a long beach of dried mud, 

 when the Indians became suddenly excited, shouting 

 ' Ecui Jauarete ; Jauari-pixuna ! ' (* Behold the jaguar, 

 the black jaguar ! Looking ahead we saw the animal 

 quietly drinking at the water's edge. Cardozo ordered 

 the steersman at once to put us ashore. By the time we 

 were landed the tiger had seen us, and was retracing his 

 steps towards the forest. On the spur of the moment and 

 without thinking of what we were doing, we took our 

 guns (mine was a double-barrel, with one charge of B B 

 and one of dust-shot) and gave chase. The animal in- 

 creased his speed, and reaching the forest border dived 

 into the dense mass of broad-leaved grass which formed 

 its frontage. We peeped through the gap he had made, 

 but, our courage being by this time cooled, did not think 

 it wise to go into the thicket after him. The black tiger 

 appears to be more abundant than the spotted form of 

 jaguar in the neighbourhood of Ega. The most certain 

 method of finding it is to hunt, assisted by a string of 

 Indians shouting and driving the game before them, in 

 the narrow resting as or strips of dry land in the forest, 

 which are isolated by the flooding of their neighbour- 

 hood in the wet season. We reached Ega by eight o'clock 

 at night. 



On the 6th of October we left Ega on a second excursion ; 

 the principal object of Cardozo being, this time, to search 

 certain pools in the forest for young turtles. The exact 

 situation of these hidden sheets of water is known only to a 

 few practised huntsmen ; we took one of these men with 

 us from Ega, a mameluco named Pedro, and on our way 

 called at Shimuni for Daniel to serve as an additional 



