The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-12
BY DR.. Eugene Murray Aaron.

! parts of the manatee. was now anxious
| to have me get out of his path that he
might come out AID get a drink. Just
as this added danger appeared the out
/ er end of the cave was again darkened
! by the stealthy approach of jaguar
Whether this was the formerly frlgh-
| tened one to whose sense Of smell the
| freshly spilled blood of the manatee
! strongly appealed or whether il was a
new arrival not formerly impressed
with the powers Of a shotgun l knew
not; but in either case hunger had evil
! IDENTIFY gotten the better of caution, as
/ could plainly see by the way the
| brute crouched slowly along intent on
watching for the best moment TO at
| tack me unaWares.
| This was uncomfortably like a close
call. with jaguar in front of me, jaguar
! behind me, and most painfully hard
! rocks close to the right and left of me-;
and l was sore put to it to determine
on the instant whether it was better
| to face the hungry one with a light
! loaded gun or retreat to the gorSed
| enc and allow the two 10 fight 1t out
in the passage way, for my appearance
in the larger interior of the cave was
sure to drive the hunger-satisfied one
! out. Just a this moment l thought OF
| the dynamite cartridges in my pocket,
and l saw my way clear in an instant.
! While these cartridges were not suffi-
GENTLY large to do me any harm at
few yards distance. they were suffi-
GENTLY powerful to kill me if l was
within two or three feet of them when
they exploded, and / knew the same
would ho4d true of jaguars Taking
two of them out of my pocket and all
the time closely watching the hungry
brute in front of me, while 1 listened
almost breathlessly for any sound be-
hind, l cut the fuses very short, for al
most instantaneous explosion lit them
hurriedly from a pocket cigar lighter,
which I always carried, and threw
them from me in opposite directions.
The one to the rear l threw without
looking back, for fear that the enemy
in front might take the instant adVan-
tage for an attack; but, knowing from
the former sounds that the main part
of the cavern was near at hand, 1 felt
no fear from the consequences in that
quarter.
The fuse in the cartridge thrown in
front of me I had purposely cut some
what shorter, and the moment it struck
the ground at the feet of the crouch
ing jaguar that savage, but deluded
brute, slapped his paw down upon it
and started TO chew it into a shapeleSs
mass, as instinct had taught him to do
with all enemies. Instinct is a fairly
reliable teacher along old lines, but it
takes no account, in jaguardom, of
such new forces as dynamite, and the
almost instantaneous effect of the mis-
guided brute's hardihood was a deafen-
ing explosion, which seemed to shake
the rocky walls of the cavern, and
which, as 1 afterwards found, did not
leave a square inch of the head or neck
of the jaguar to use for postmorteu
Identification. Instinct, coupled with
my knowledge of explosives, served
me better however; for, as I covered
my face with my pith helmet, and
threw myself down on the floor of the
passage. and as the surface on which
the jagyar was crouching sloped out
ward, l lad nothing TO show for tho
violent explosion save one jaguar tooth
embedded in my helmet and a lot of
fine particles of stone sprinkled over
me.
The explosion of the second cartridge
which I had thrown behind me into the
cavern, resulted less disastrously to
the brute it was intended for but
rather more seriously for me. 1t fol-
lowed the first almost instantly, per-
haps less than three seconds inter
vening; but in that time [ had started
TO my hands and knees again. The
burning fuse, showing plainly in the
dim light of the cavern. must have
frightened the, brute in there to the
farthest extremity from the cartridge
or else it would have been either killed
outright or badly wounded by flying
stones. AS it was, the deafening up
roar, much more terrible in its sound
on account of its being confined within
the cavern, frightened the brute into
entire forgetfulness Of my presence
and, rushing out towards the outer air
just as l was regaining my crawling
posture and finding me an obstacle to
its progress, it dealt me a blow in the
rear which made sitting down a very
uncomfortable proceeding for some
days thereafter, and sent me fiat to
the ground again. I was not too dazed
with the blow to be aware that his
jaguarship lost no time in rushing over