Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-07-03
FIELDS OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS AND DARING
DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

ing at ranch ON the Alta upper
Orinoco, in the partly open lands OF
the cattle region Of Venezuela" said
Sidney Ascot, who in Travelled South
America from one end to tie other, in
The New York Sun. "One day my
friend. Ellis Greli, Il noted cattle eX.
porter, at whose house | was Il guest,
proposel that we @ ont with our shot.
guns 70" pewas. as the wild turk eys OF
that region are called, / was reading
IN inte esting novel at the time. Sc
when we started out with our guns, a
lunch, and pockets full of corn, j took
the book along with me, for I knew
thai pewa hunting meant hours of 81.
lent waiting, which reading would help
to while away. When we got to the
place we meant to hunt, Grell and |
separated so MS to cover more country.
] found spot to suit me, rugged up a
blind of green branches, and theu
dropped the corn along in lines, all
leading, from considerable distances
away, up to the blind, to entice the
turkeys within shooting range. Then
l seated myself comfortably behind
the blind, and taking out the novel,
began to read.
''The story was a good one, and as
I was expecting nothing but turkeys
to arrive, I did not at first pay much
attention to rusting sound that after
time came to my ears from q tree
that stood a few PAGES away, so near
that the tip of one of its lower
branches almost overhung me. l
merely glanced up among the leaves,
and seeing nothing to cause the sound,
thought that it was made by bird or
monkey, and went on with my read
ing. In place of the rustling came
another sound, steady flip flap,
which I could not understand, and |
looked up into the tree more carefully;
but still seeing nothing to alarm me
I turned again to my book. I should
not have found the novel so interest
ing had known, as presently 1 found
out, that the rustling was caused by
iaguar lying upon limb of the tree
within easy springing distance of me,
and the fiip-happing sound was made
by his tail.
"a turkey came along at last, soli-
! tary one, and l shot it directly opposite
the blind. The instant the bird fell
struggling the iaguar leaped from the
tree upon it, struck it down with his
paw, and turning, crouched, growing,
as if to spring upon me. The only
cartridges 1 had along were loaded
with fine shot, and there was but one
left in my gun. I did the only thing
possible to save myself and fired at
the iaguar's head, destroying both of
his eyes. He sprang, but the shot
made him swerve, and he landed to
one side of me, giving mea chance to
run. Blinded as he was, the jaguar chased
me all the way home to the ranch
house, guided only by the sound of my
movements and his sense of smell.
Running slap against tree trunks and
whatever else might be in his way, he
nevertheless led me so close chase
that had not my path laid through
woods he certainly would have over
taken me. 1 had no cartridges with
which to pepper him as ran, having
left my cartridge belt on the ground at
the blind with my book in the hurry
Of getting away.
"a garden fence before the house
stopped the iaguar, and, while he was
nosing along it trying to get through,
had time to dash indoors and get
some buckshot cartridges for my gun,
with which came ont and finished
him. I had had close call, closer
than ever l care to repeat; and | never
went out shoe ting again in the tropics
without taking both ball and buckshot
cartridges with me. That the jaguar
lay so long in the tree without spring
ing directly upon me L attribute to
the probability that he was not very
hungry. II was the sight of the fut-
tering turkey, it's natural prey, and the
smell of it's blood that woke the iaguar's
savage instincts.
I'm the village of Nutrias, up the
Orinoco, I saw an Indian named Josefa
Arabundo who bore sad marks of
juguar's teeth and claws, being lamed
for life, and she incurred them in de-
Tending her child from being carried
away. 1t occurred in this way: As
she sat at her door one day with the
child beside her a iaguar suddenly ap-
peared, seized the child, and turned
10 dart away with it into the forest In
desperation the mother grabbed the
beast by the tail and held on. The
jaguar dropped the child, and, turning
upon Josefa, with one stroke of his paw
tore through flesh and muscles from
her hip to her knee. Again he seized
the child, and again the mother
caught him by the tail. This time
the jaguar attacked her more savagely
than before, tearing her with his claws
and biting her terribly in the breast.
Once more the brute seized the child,
but the little ve-year-old Indian, with
the jaguar's teeth in its hip. fought so
tiercely, hammering the beasts head
with his fists, and at last pushing its
finger into his eye, that the jaguar
dropped it for third time.
'By this time the father came up
and attacked the jaguar with his
machete. In his excitement he missed
the first stroke, merely severing one
of the iaguar's ears. Again he struck,
as the animal turned on him, this time
cutting off one of the jaguars feet.
The blow caused the iaguar to miss its
spring upon him, and gave the Indian
chance for fair stroke at the neck,
which severed the head from the body.
The mother showed me the scars of her
wounds, and | saw the child that the
iaguar had seized, now grown up to
young womanhood. She had sus-
tained no permanent injury from the
teeth of the brute"
Shot the Grand Canyon Of Alaska.
John Dodson, a Pendleton (Ore.)
young man, now deputy collector of
internal revenue at Circle City, Alaska,
has written interestingly about how
Grand canyon was shot on the out
trip. Mr.. Dodson says: 1.-The can
= a