The Mena weekly star., 1911-06-15

the Tiger

guide and boatman, Pope told me
that he knew Of a jaguar trail made
by the grand tigren Of the Taum-
alipas jungle, Zane Grey writes IN
Harpers weekly. As the scene OF
the proposed hunt lay far back IN
the interior reached only by the
panuco river, and affording me an
opportunity TO visit its fascinating
byways and waterways, | lost no
time in arranging details.
1t was never possible for me TO
lie in bed upon the morning OF a
journey, and that was why ! got
TO the canal wharf long before day
light and Pope. While ] waited the
gray cloud lighted and lifted and
dawn broke with balmy freshness.
The sun shone warm through
riffs in the rolling mists. Pope was
late, but presently | saw boat
coming down the canal and recog-
nized his brawny shoulders, and we
were soon out in the broad Pamlco
river. At 7 O'Clock the sun was al
ready hot and the river steamlng
with mist.
AT the little village of Tames we
had lunch under a shade tree on
the bank. Above Tames the banks
Of the Panuco were dotted with
matched huts, and no more roofs
with red and brown tiles and purple
adobe walls caught my eye. After
a short journey we pitched camp
early in a favorable spot. In the
jungle it is no easy task to find a
fitting place on which to lay ones
blankets, for it is the home of in
Vulnerable creeping things. While
Pope busted himself about the
campfire | found a trail and fol-
lowed it to a lagoon. | found a
| great flock of white cranes and pink
flamingoes. Egrets waded in the
shallow reedy water. Little snipe
and small black ducks padded
among the lily pads. A patch of
canvas-backs, teals and brants glis-
tened like a shiny island out in the
lagoon. And on the moment | saw
a long wavering line of geese, black
against the rosy sky, vanish in the
fire of the sunset.
Beyond where we camped that
night the huts grew few and far
between. Also the natives, what
few we saw, proved shyer as we
/ travelled upstream.
Pope rowed twenty miles the next
day, wind and tide assisting, and the
farther west we Travelled the Wild
er grew the jungle Everywhere
along the shore deer came down to
| drink. That day we passed a few
dilapidated huts which appeared to
be deserted. AT night, after vain
attempts to locate any kind of a
space free of brush and vermin, we
tried to sleep in the boat.
All journeys have an end some
time, and we reached our desti-
nation on a tributary of the Panuco.
| We pitched our camp facing the
first step of a mountain range. Pope
had an acquaintance here, a herder,
who owned a few fenced-in fields.
| I've only one neighbor, and his
| wife thinks her little boy was car
ried off by a big iaguar," said the
| herder. but | believe the croco-
| dies got the lad. The streams full
of them. You'll be doing us a good
turn TO kill the crocodiles."
No one could sleep after dawn
in this jungle. With the gray light
pealed out the incessant notes OF
| birds, and then the rolling boom of
the native pheasant, and lastly
came thousands of screeching par
rots. Outside the tent my guide
was intently studying the ground.
"Tigre' he said.
| There at my feet in the clay was
the imprint of a huge paw.
That's jaguar track" | ejac-
ulated.
| My man put his spread hand in
side that track. 1t was fresh and
might have been an hour or half a
night old. trailed our visitor
down to the mouth of the runway.
There were no cattle tracks, but
the oval SUITS of the deer and pecar-
~ were too many to count, and cat
| tracks numbered seven Of different
sizes. Just then the herder came
across the stream bringing a NANCY
| hound which, he said, would scent
jungle cats. With Pope leading the
| hound we made off. The herder re-
| fused to go with us.
| AT the outset the shady runway
was silent. The jungle slept The
long silken streamers of moss
waved without perceptible wind,
| but there was no swaying of palm
leaves or rustic of trailing vines.
| The intense heat Of the day pene-
trated even the dense covering
| overhead. We walked slowly and
cautiously, making little sound.
! Suddenly Pope stopped short with
a scream of "Tigre!"
| heard swift thumps of padded
| feet, swishing of a palm leaf.
| dropped fiat. A rush of wind swept
in my ears. Frantically scrambling
| to my knees, | saw the finish of the
jaguars leap. When he hit 1t was
| to bunch his long tawny body and
half turn, so that saw his face. AT
five feet the sight of his open jaws
| with ypilOuy fanOe his nala avac nc