82 ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. Book I. 
burrs, which grappled over horse and rider, formed a most 
annoying obstacle from below, while, above, the ropes of 
climbers and twiners hanging from tree to tree across the 
way, threatened the traveller with the fate of Absalom. 
From time to time, while thus toiling along in the dim 
light of the moon shining through some open spaces of the 
forest, I was seized with violent vomiting. During one of 
these attacks, having alighted from my horse and resting 
my head upon a low branch, the latter gave way and I 
fell into the bushes. At the same moment a large body 
leaped from the thicket, bending and breaking the branches 
where it fell, and passed on, till the cracking noise became 
lost in the distance. I asked my guide what it was. " Un 
tigre," a tiger, answered the man, this being the name by 
which the jaguar is designated in this part of Spanish 
America. This is the solitary instance in which I have 
come in contact with one of these animals during my 
travels in Central America. It strikes me as an interest- 
ing fact in natural history that the temper of the same 
species of animals is different in different regions. The 
jaguar exists in Nicaragua in individuals of monstrous size, 
though as I believe, it does not occur very frequently. 
Here, however, it is not at all looked upon as the dangerous 
and ferocious animal it seems to be considered in other 
South American countries, as I have read in reference to 
Paraguay and the Pampas of the Rio de la Plata. 
By-and-bye the path became steeper and rougher. With 
the first light of day I had reached the end of the forest 
which surrounds the lower part of the mountain. Here 
savanas began. Where the old grass had been burned they 
had the appearance of fields of young wheat. Various shrubs 
and trees, some of them without leaves, but covered with 
splendid flowers, were distributed in groups over the moun- 
