The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-11
NOVEL JAGUAR HUNT.
rsING DYNAMITE WHEN CORNER
ED IN A CAVE.
The Narrow Escape in south America
of n VenturesOme Explorer.


There are many ways of hunting the
South American lion. or jaguar. as ne is
NOR properly called. but a plan that
ms forced 10 have recourse to once in the
-sbI. land between Bogota and Quito, near
a tributary Of the Japura river. is worth
5s.-ri5ing, because of its novelty and the
amount OF excitement it afforded me while
it lasted.
mad been out all the morning and part
nj the afternoon engaged with net and
r,ts5n bottle in collecting the rare insects
~ .7at region for it was mainly as the
travelling representative of a large Eu-
ro,san museum that I was there. On my
rs..rn 10 camp. tired, hot and as hungry
an Arizona coyote. I was not a little
dissusted 10 find that my lazy guide and
carriers had utterly failed to so out after
any game and thus provide me with fresh
meat had grown rather tired of dried
m7nkey and salted iguana-the giant liz
g-I-and having set my mind on good
s5uare meal of fresh monkey or 'jaquarl'
+sh. I was unwilling to rest content with
ANYTHING less. SO, taking my gun and two
small dynamite cartridges, with which to
rskc an explosion in the river and there
i bv procure an abundance of fish, provided
my gun did not bring me something bet
IT, I sailed forth. muttering anathemas
u my worthless half-breed guide and his
men.
1t could not have been more than a quar-
ter OF a mile from camp that l detected
along the rivers edge the fresh tracks of
q manatee, than which there is no more
tooJhsome morsel at the right time of the
year. and, with much caution, l followed
. .t,r Il he n
the dense underground, ferns MOSES, and
the margin of a swamp of some size to the
foot of a step cliff, which is there the first
signs of the high hills further up the
stream. This cliff had several cave open
ngs in it, and it was toward one of these
that my coveted prize had gone. Unfor-
tunately, from the margin of the river
10 the cliffs edge at that point, there was
the most dense growth of erns, MOSES and
other tropical carpetings, and it was i'm
possible for one to say with certainty that
the manatee had gone into the cave, but,
as the growth seemed much matted
down in that direction, 1 followed uhe
lead.
The mouth of the cave was high enough
for me to walk in upright, and, save, 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 I'M
usual caution in entering it. After l had
gone in perhaps fifty feet the cave mar
rowed down to a passage way so low
that 1 had to take all tours to make fur
Their progress. Had juicy steak for din
ner been all that l was in quest of, the
risk of crawling into a possible iaguars
den would have been sufficient TO have
deferred me from further pursuit of fresh
meat in that direction; but the tracks
had seen indicated a fine, large, adult
specimen of its kind, and as I had neither
the skin nor skeleton of large manatee
to send to the museum, my caution was
drowned in the naturalists ardor ana L
pushed forward as rapidly as I could in
such a position, dragging my gun be-
hind me.
After going a few yards in this very un-
comfortable fashion it seemed that the
light back of me grew suddenly dim and
1 turned my head just in time to see
iaguar which appeared as big as a COW
in the position l was then in, and so close
to me that I could almost 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 to vie with
the cat tribe in quickness of motion. Be
fore l was half way round, but with the
gun at least in the right direction, the
jaguar was up with me, and with a quick
thrust of his paw, he jerked the gun
from my grasp in an evident attempt to
hit me- Whether | instinctively pulled the
trigger at that instant or whether the
triggers which were hair and self-cocking
ones caught in something l do not know,
but with a report that seemed to split
my eardrums, both barrels were fired as
one shot.
When the choking smoke had somewhat
cleared away l found myself unframed,
save an ugly bruise on my wrist, where
the gun had kicked back violently and hit
me with its shoulder piece. Just what
effect had been produced on the jaguar
was unable to guess, as he had entirely
disappeared, and had left no trace OF blood
behind him. Naturally, my first care was
to reload my gun, which, much to my
CONSERVATION, l found useles, because me
two buckshot loads just fired were the
only ones I had with me, all the rest of
my cartridges being loaded with light
shot for very small game. To fire at
jaguar with light shot is worse than use
less. Neither a lion nor a tiger is any
more full of fight than jaguar, and nei-
Their of them is nearly so quick in its
motions. To fire two light loads into
an advancing jaguar would simply have
the effect of red rag on an angry bull;
it would only be an invitation to Mr..
Jaguar to hurry on the combat-an invi-
tation that he would accept with light
ning-like CELEBRITY.
But of the return of the jaguar 1 felt
certain. He would surely appear again as
soon as his surprise at the deadening dis
charge of the gun had been overcome by
his hunger for young and fairly fat human
steak. This naturally FASTENED my deter
minaton to reach the open air, where, at
least, could club" my gun over the
brute's head and use a rather ample sti-
letto always carried, if the worst came
to the worst. And this determination was
greatly strengthened by certain ominous
sounds that suddenly began to emanate
from the depth of the cavern behind me.
II was evident from these that another
1aguar was in there, and, probably, hav-
ing devoured the best parts of the mana
tee, was now anxious to have me get out
OF his path that he might come out ana
get drink. Just as this added danger
appeared, the outer end of the cave was
again darkened by the stealthy approach
oI Jaguar Whether this was the former
y heightened one, to whose sense of smell
the freshly spilled blood of the manatee
strongly appealed, or whether 1t was
new arrival not formerly impressed with
tAe powers of a shotgun, knew not; but
IL either case hunger had evidently got
len the better of caution, as 1 could plain