68 
Construction of a Jaguar Trap. 
color are more conmiou on the coast than iu the interior, and hardly a 
year pasises in which l'ü or 30 are not caught iu large traps and killed. 
The amount of cattlo breeding that is carried un, particularly by the 
estates and farms between the Essequebo and Berbice, seems to have 
been especially instrumental in bringing the animals here. When once 
they have lixcd their lair in the neighbuurhuud of such a homestead, sel- 
dom a night passes but they go and rob the herds. They usually suck the 
blood out of the dead beast and eat some lU tu 15 lbs. from the breast or 
neck, either leaving the remainder where it is or dragging it into the 
neighbouring brush-wood : only the most dire necessity will bring them 
back to what is left. In spite of the many tires which the cattle-owners 
may light during the niglit around the fenecs, these do not by any means 
succeed in keeping them away. 
171. The construction of the traps mentioned above entirely corre- 
sponds with those used by us for catching rats or nuirtens. It consists 
of a large box the thick boarded covering and similar flooring of which is 
clamped on all four sides with strong iron bars, and has at the one end 
a drop-door wldch is held up by m'eans of a trigger-board. Within (and 
at the other end of) the box is a compartment divided off from the main 
chamber by strong iron bars, in wliich a sheep or goat is enclosed, and 
the trap then set in a soniewliat out-of-the-way part of the estate. When 
the jaguar or punm creeps through the drop-door into the box to secure 
the bait and treads on the trigger-board, the door drops behind it and 
the thief is cauglit. By this means our friend, van Günthern, on Planta- 
tion Greenwich Park, had in the one year out^^iitted four animals, one of 
which nevertheless mhanaged to break down the thumb-thick iron bars, 
during the course of the night and so get away. The fury of the ensnared 
beast, its roaring, and its frantic fight for freedom, are said to have 
sonnetliing truly horrible al)0ut them : it is usually shot in the trap. 
Shortly before my departure for Europe a bold young Vaqueiro (cow 
lioy) IS years of age on one of the farms in the neighbourhood of the 
Demerara had on horseback lassoed and strangled a jaguar that had 
approached the herd in the daytime. The brave deed was the daily topic 
of conversation for weeks, and as this was the second animal he had 
killed within a short pei-iod, he received a handsome reward from the 
Governor. 
172. I have already mentioned tliat ilie jaguar often fetches the dogs 
from out of the centre of a circle of Indians or out of the homesteads, 
and also the sui-prising fact that as soon as it is pursued and hunted by 
a pack of them, it makes its escape up the first convenient obliquely- 
slanting tree where it mostly l)eeomes an easy prey for the huntsman. 
Put if the shot misses or if the jaguar is but slightly wounded, it 
certainly turns with overwhelming fury upon its pursuer, who now can 
only save himself by some other means or by cold-blooded presence of 
mind. On my trip up the Demerara I met a Negro who on such an 
occasion had lost not only his right band, l)ut a considerable portion of 
his shoulder-muscles. He had gone hunting in company with an Indian 
and his three dogs. The dogs drove a jaguar out of its lair, which 
finally took refuge on a half-uprooted tree. Barking loudly, the dogs 
surrounded it, the Negro approached to within about 18 paces, fired his 
