I Soon After Reached The Shore In Safety, Where I Was Speedily Joined By The Escort, Who Saw Nothing Of The Reptile In Their Way Across, And Who, Being Men Bred Amongst Such Scenes, And Totally Divested Of Fear, At Once Took The Water, Although They Had Witnessed The Encounter.

The cayman of South America is very ferocious, and is popularly styled the hyena of the alligator tribe.

This savage creature will instantly attack a man or a horse, and on this account the Indians of Chili, before wading a stream, take the precaution of using long poles, to ascertain its presence or to drive it away. Naturalists assert that the cayman is not found in the North American rivers, and I should imagine this to be correct, for, although engaged in many alligator hunts, I found from personal experience and minute inquiry that the species found in North America is harmless if unmolested.

After a laborious ride we arrived at Fort Andrews, where we found a military station of U.S. Infantry. We halted here for several days, I having business requiring my attention, and ourselves and our beasts needing to recruit our strength, before continuing our route to the Bay. The forest scenery here almost defies description. Immense cedars, and other lordly trees, rear their gigantic and lightning-scathed heads over their smaller and less hardy but graceful neighbours; cactuses, mimonias, and tropical shrubs and flowers, which at home are to be seen only in conservatories or green-houses are here in profusion,

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