The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-12

There are many ways Of hunting
the South American lion, or iaguar
as he is more properly called; but a
plan that I was forced to have re-
course to once in the tableland be-
tween Bogota and Quito near a tribu-
'tary OF the Japura river is worth de-
scribing because of its novelty and the
amount of excitement it afforded me
while it lasted
! had been out all the morning and
part OF the afternoon engaged with
net and poison bottle in collecting the
rare insects of that region, for IL was
mainly as travelling representative of
a large European museum that 1 was
there. On my return to camp, tired,
hot. All as hungry as an Arizona
coyote, was not a little disguised to
find that my lazy guide and carriers
had utterly failed to go out after any
game and thus provide me with fresh
meat. I had grown rather tired of
dried monkey and sailed iguana-the
e Giant lizard-and, having set my mind
Oh a good square meal of fresh mon
key or "jaquari" fish 1 was unwilling
10 rest content with anything else.
So, taking my gun and couple of
small dynamite cartridges. with which
10 make an explosion in the river ard
thereby procure an abundance of fish,
provided my gun did not bring me
something better, 1 sailed forth, NUT
tering anatnenas on my worthless
half-breed guide and his men.
II could not have been more than
quarter of a mile from camp shat l de-
tected along the rivers edge the fresh
tracks of a manatee, than which their
is no more toothSome morsel at the
right time of year, and with much eau
tion I followed the signs, now along
! ia, fIn I.ar,c dor
growth. and finally along the margin
of q swamp Of some size to the foot
of a steep cliff which is there the first
signs of the high hills further up
stream. This cliff had several cave
openings in it and it was towards one
of these that my coveted prize had
gone. Unfortunately, from the margin
OF the river to the cliffs edge at this
point there was the most dense growth
OF ferns, moses and other tropical car
petings, and it was impossible for one
20 say with certainty that the manatee
had gone into the cave; but as the
growth seemed much matted down in
that direction I followed that lead
The mouth of the cave was high
enough for me to walk in upright and,
sa~ an unmistakable odor of the cat
tribe, as common TO all such caves as it
is to all menageries and cages Of lions
and their kind, there was nothing to
call for unusual caution in entering It.
After I had gone in perhaps fifty feet
the cave narrowed down to a passage
way so low that 1 had to take to all
tours TO make further progress. Had &
juicy stake for dinner been all that I
was in quest of, the risk of crawling
into G possible jaguar's den would have
been sufficient to deter me from further
pursuit Of fresh meat in that direction;
but the tracks I had seen indicated a
fine large adult specimen of its kind.
and as l had neither the skin nor the
skeleton of a large manatee TO send to
the museum, my caution was drowned
in the naturalist's ardor. and pushed
forward as rapidly as l could in such
q position, dragging my gun behind
me.
After going a few yards in this very
uncomfortable fashion il seemed that
the light back of me grew suddenly
dim and I turned my head just in time
TO see a Jaguar which appeared as big
as a cow, in the position l was then in,
and so close 70 me that I almost could
have touched him with my gun. My
effort TO turn in my narrow quarters
and let the brute have a charge OF
buckshot in the face was made as
quickly as is possible to most men, but
there is no use in trying 10 vie with the
cat tribe in quicknesS of motion. Be-
fore l was half way around but with
the gun at least IN the right direction.
the jaguar was up with me and with
quick thrust of his paw he jerked
the gun from my grasp in an evident
attempt to hit me. Whether I ina
stinctively pulled the triggers at that
instant or whether the triggers, which
were hair and self-cocking ones
caught in something, 1 do not know
but with a report that seemed to split
my eardTums, both barrels were fired
as one shot.
When the choking smoke had some
what cleared away L found myself
quite unframed save for an ugly