The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-03
FIERCE PANTHER TIGERS
BEASTS IN SOME OF
 VENEzUELd'S UNT4INS.

They Are Really Jaguais, and Are
 Found in Lower Mountain Levels
 persistency in striving to Take Some
 One MaM as Prey-Notablo Conflicts
 With Them.
 Panther -jaguars they should be
 called, but in every Spanish American
 country a jaguar is always un H.
 gre, a tiger-so panther-tigers is thelr
 name in Venezuela" said Estran Nle-
 holm, for many years buyer of hldes
 and rubber in South America. They
 may be found in other localities, put l i have never seen them or heard Of them
 In any other region than the eastern
 bases of the maritime and nosthe'n Andes They range the high, pa tly
 wooded plateaus and lower mountain | levels above the river valleys and pam
 pas, where the ordinary jaguar IS
 found, and below the peaks and upper
 mountain valleys, where the mountain l lion has his home. These beasts differ | from the lowland jaguar in hay ing a | muzzle longer and more taperinG and slenderer body with greater length CT limb, much resembling the panther in form. In their spotted markings they are true jaguars, but with paler cClo,s
 than the jaguars of the Orinoeo anu it's lower tributary valleys They are fero cious man-eaters, more ready than any other South American animal to attack human beings without provocation, The traveller passing between the mountains and the pampas takes extra precautions for his safety at night when he enters the zone where the ran- ther-tiger ranges.
 This creature figures uncannily in many weird tales told by Venezuelan llaneros and montaneI os-people of the plains and mountains. One story often told is of the traveller who rode from the pampas in among the foothills on the route from the Portuguese river to Caracas, He was never seen by man again. but party riding over the trail some days later saw the evidences of the fate that had befallen him. When night came being apparently aware of danger from wild beasts, he had sung his hammock between two trees as high from the ground as he could raise 1t The hammock was there empty, an clawprnts in the ground below showed that panther-tiger had leaped repeat edly upward for his victim until at last he had torn him from the hammock He had dragged the man away, and the only traces ef the tragedy to b. found were blood marks on the ground and the prints of the tigers claws
 The women of the little settlement that lie isolated in the wooded region at the eastern base of the Andes greatly dread the panther-tger from his habit of carrying off children. Cunning, s- lent and swift instances have been known of his taking enid from the cradle in broad daylight and bearing it away unknown to the mother who was attending to her household work only a few paces away. He hesitates as little in attacking full-grown persons. though fer this commonly ch1csas the rk- ness. But day CT night his di position to seize his human prey is governed largely by his hunger An Indian that met at little village called Concep- cion had frightful zigzag scar across his forehead the mark of a paw-stroke of panther- tiger. He showed me the marks of two bites in his left shoulder, and his legs in front, from groin to knees, were furrowed with ng up and down scars, where skin and flesh had once been literally torn into ribbons, all tokens of the same encounter
 His story, verified by men who had found him in the forest. was { a he was gathering medicinal plants in the woodland when panther-tiger sprans upon him from a tree limb. Catchn sight of the tigers moving shadow, the man. who was possessed of unusual and agi ty, jumped to ore side so that the beast ms el his spring. Striking the ground hey nd h. man, the tiser instantly turned and sprang aeain at his throat. The Ind- an 8 machete was in his hand, and he < dealt the tiger a blow on the head that | seemed to confusa the animal for he ' seized him with his tee, h by the shoul- der instead of the throat One str ke of . the fQreTaW tore the skin of the mans . forehead down over hia eyes, but as he . 3 aegered backward the trunk of a tree kept him from falling
 "Clinging with teeth and fore claws to the mans shoulders the tiger tore at . him with hls hind claws in the effort to | 1isemboWel him. By lucky blow for he was blinded by blood from the wound in his forehead the man cut one If the tigers hind paws completely off The tiger dropped to the ground but reared at once and seized the man again oy the shoulder. Stopping, the In dian plunged his machete in the tigers tely and with a quick upward stroke com oletely disemboweed the creature. Then the man fainted and was found, hours later, by some passing wools- ne, lying unconscious where he had 'allen, with the tiger dead beside him. He was carried home where he hung Or weeks between life and death and le never recovered from the effects of lis wounds received from the tiger.
 Like other species of the la ger fe- ines, the panther-tiger has the un- pleasant habit of stalking men--of fol- owing a man in thde forest, throughout he whole day it may be. waiting for darkness to fall when it will attack i'm. This the beast has been known to To when there were several men togath- 1T, and in such a case nothing can raw the attention of the tigerfr om the man whom he has sele, t Il or his prey. From camp of timber | utters at work in the forests south Cf 1erida a mestizo-a man of Spanish | nd Indian descent-more intelligent l han his comrades, was sent one day to