6 
JAGUAR. 
These skins are very highly prized by the Mexicans, and also by the 
Rangers ; they are used for holster coverings and as saddle cloths, and 
form a superb addition to the caparison of a beautiful horse, the most 
important animal to the occupants of the prairies of Texas, and upon 
which they always show to the best advantage. 
In a conversation with General Houston at Washington city, he 
informed us that he had found the Jaguar east of the San Jacinto river, 
and abundantly on the head waters of some of the eastern tributaries of 
the Rio Grande, the Guadaloupe, &c. 
These animals, said the general, are sometimes found associated to the 
number of two or more together, when they easily destroy horses and other 
large quadrupeds. On the head waters of the San Marco, one night, the 
general’s people were aroused by the snorting of their horses, but on 
advancing into the space around could see nothing, owing to the great 
darkness. The horses having become quiet, the men returned to camp 
and lay down to rest as usual, but in the morning one of the horses was 
found to have been killed and eaten up entirely, except the skeleton. The 
horses on this occasion were hobbled and picketed ; but the general thinks 
the Jaguar frequently catches and destroys wild ones, as well as cattle. 
The celebrated Bowie caught a splendid mustang horse, on the rump of 
which were two extensive scars made by the claws of a Jaguar or cougar. 
Such instances, indeed, are not very rare. 
Capt. J. P. McCown, U. S. A., related the following anecdote to us : — 
At a camp near the Rio Grande, one night, in the thick, low, level musquit 
country, when on an expedition after Indians, the captain had killed a 
beef which was brought into camp from some distance. A fire was made, 
part of the beef hanging on a tree near it. The horses were picketed 
around, the men outside forming a circular guard. After some hours of 
the night had passed, the captain was aroused by the soldier next him 
saying, “ Captain, may I shoot?” and raising himself on his arm, saw a 
Jaguar close to the fire, between him and the beef, and near it, with one 
fore-foot raised, as if disturbed ; it turned its head towards the captain as 
he ordered the soldier not to fire, lest he should hurt some one on the 
other side of the camp, and then, seeming to know it was discovered, but 
without exhibiting any sign of fear, slowly, and with the stealthy, noiseless 
pace and attitude of a common cat, sneaked off. 
The Jaguar, in its South American range, was long since noticed for its 
ferocity by Humboldt and others. In some remarks on the American 
animals of the genus felis, which we find in the Memoirs of the Wernerian 
Nat. Hist. Society of Edinburgh, vol. iv., part 2, p. 470, it is stated that 
Ihe Jaguar, like the royal tiger of Asia, does not fly from man when it is 
