VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 371 
the entire body of this otherwise good pork. In the open 
forests I have often found peccary tracks, but never unac¬ 
companied by the full, round print of the jaguar. When 
pursued, the peccary takes readily to the water, and swims 
rivers. The jaguar, or tigre, as he is always called in 
Central America, is not a very dangerous animal, as he 
fears man much more than man fears him. The tigre is 
especially fond of dogs, and will enter a house at night to 
carry off the prized morsel; sometimes when hungry he 
will persistently resist all efforts to drive him away from 
a house-yard, and one of my monteros was attacked by one 
when sleeping in the forest. In this case the tigre was in 
complete darkness, and was badly gashed by the man’s 
machete; but so far from being frightened, he actually pur¬ 
sued the montero more than a mile to the nearest house, 
where a gun was obtained and the wounded animal shot. 
I have seen skins between five and six feet long, exclusive 
of head and tail. The puma (Felis concolor ) is more com¬ 
mon in the mountain regions, and the “ lion ” that de¬ 
scended from the Yolcan de Agua and ravaged the country 
about the young City of Guatemala ( antigua ) was of this 
species. The ocelot (Leoparduspardalis) and coyote (Canis 
ockropus) are also found in the interior. 
Of creeping things the warm regions of the earth 
are supposed to be prolific. I had been told of the ter¬ 
rible serpents, — the boas that hung from the trees and 
whipped up deer, the deadly tomagoff, and others, until 
I was ready to see their folds around every tree, or their 
coils under every bush. I was to be deprived of a swim 
in the rivers and lakes because of the alligators, and I 
must beware of scorpions and centipedes. Now, in fact, 
the alligators are few in number, small in size, and very 
