them to drag off one of these animals. Azara caused the body of a
horse, which had been recently killed by a jaguar, to be drawn within
musket-shot of a tree, in which he intended to pass the night,
anticipating that the jaguar would return in the course of it, to its
victim; but while he was gone to prepare for his adventure, behold the
animal swam across a large and deep river, and having seized the horse
with his teeth, dragged it full sixty paces to the river, swam across
again with his prey, and then dragged the carcass into a into a
neighboring wood: and all this in sight of a person, whom Azara had
placed to keep watch. But the jaguars have also an aldermanic gout for
turtles, which they gratify in a very systematic manner, as related by
Humboldt, who was shown large shells of turtles emptied by them.

They follow the turtles toward the beach, where the laying of eggs is
to take place, surprise them on the sand, and in order to devour them
at their ease, adroitly turn them on their backs; and as they turn
many more than they can devour in one night, the Indians often profit
by their cunning. The jaguar pursues the turtle quite into the water,
and when not very deep, digs up the eggs; they, with the alligator,
the heron, and the gallinago vulture ore the most formidable enemies
the little turtles have. Humboldt justly remarks, When we reflect on
the difficulty that the naturalist finds in getting out the body of
the turtle, without separating the upper and the under shell, we
cannot enough admire the suppleness of the jaguar's paw, which empties
the double armor of the _arraus_, as if the adhering parts of the
muscles had been cut by a surgical instrument.

The rivers of South America swarm with alligators, and these wage
perpetual war with the jaguars. It is said, that when the jaguar
surprises the alligator asleep on the hot sandbank, he attacks him in