ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
gaps. In the distance beyond were three ranges of hills, 
the colour of which appeared a pure cobalt blue. 
The central crater was formed by rugged red walls 
with spurs on the east and southeast sides. In the bottom 
was water with trees all around its edge. There were 
four square holes from which boiling water gurgled like 
feeble geysers, and three more holes of a more irregular 
shape. 
The hill range on which we stood projected well into 
the centre of the great, circular basin. It had on the 
west side perfectly vertical walls of black igneous rock. 
Its summit was chiefly formed of ferruginous, erupted 
rock thrown up while in a state of ebullition, which had 
cooled into a conglomerate of minute, globular masses, 
in shape like the bubbles of boiling water. The great 
circle around us, as we stood on the outermost point of 
the projecting spur, was most impressive, with its 
brilliantly coloured, red walls. 
My men killed a coati — a peculiar, long-nosed, car¬ 
nivorous animal, which had characteristics in common with 
dogs, monkeys, and pigs. There were two kinds of coati 
or guati, viz. the coati de mundeo (Nasua solitaria ), and 
the coati de bando (Nasua socialis) . Ours was a Nasua 
solitaria. It was a beautiful little animal, about the size 
of a small cat, with a wonderfully soft brown coat on its 
back, a yellowish red belly and bright yellow chest and 
throat. The chin was as white as snow. The long tail, one 
and a half feet long, was in black and yellow rings. It 
possessed powerful fangs on both the upper and lower 
jaws, a long, black, gritty or granular tongue, short ears, 
powerful, short fore-paws with long nails — quite dog¬ 
like; long thighs, extremely strong, short hips and hind 
legs, with callosity up to the knee — evidently to allow 
that part of the leg to rest flat upon the ground. The 
coati had velvety black eyes of great beauty, well set in 
its small, well-shaped head. It was a wild little fellow, 
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