n
committed to their charge. They were possessed of great keenness of
scent, were fierce, courageous, and very powerful animals, and could
endure the intense heat of a tropical sun. They could follow the wily
ocelot, making their way noiselessly through the dense palmetto-scrub,
and could fearlessly tackle panthers or bears.

We passed, on our course, alternate narrow strips of grass and jungle,
with cabbage-palms and numerous live-oaks scattered about in picturesque
groups. Sometimes we came to ponds fringed with saw-grass eight or ten
feet in height, from amid which rose large flocks of the beautiful
roseate spoonbill ibis, while the white ibis and ducks of varied colours
stalked and swam around the edges, and snipes rose frequently almost
from under our feet. From among a flock of turkeys, which flew up from
a thick palmetto jungle, we knocked over four fat gobblers, sufficient
for two substantial meals to our whole party.

I must not stop to describe the adventures of each day. For the first
three or four, we met with less large game than we had expected, Carlos
always telling us that farther south we should find much more.

We were not altogether unmindful of the reported bad temper of the
Indians, and had we not taken precautions against surprise, we might
possibly have been attacked; but at night two of the party were always
on watch, accompanied by a blood-hound, to give notice of the approach
of a foe. We put up rough tents, which afforded us sufficient
protection against the weather, though not against the mosquitoes, which
frequently troubled us severely. It was only towards morning that we
felt any sensation of cold. We were then glad to draw our blankets
tightly around us, though a small amount of exercise soon warmed our
blood. Our plan was to breakfast before daylight, so as to get some of
the cool hours of the morning for hunting.

We had not been long on foot--the fourth day after leaving Castle
Kearney--when we saw the hounds running backwards and forwards from one
large clump of scrub-palmetto to another.

"They are after a cat," exclaimed Carlos; "but it will be some time
before they catch it."

"A cat?" I asked.

"We call it `cat' for shortness' sake. Its common name is a
`catamount,' or, more properly, an `ocelot.'"

The hounds, who well knew where the ocelot had gone to, were chasing it
from tree to tree; but still it continued to elude them. All we could
do was to stand by