upon this occasion, took advantage of the jaguar's skill, and
carried to the camp all that the latter had left. It was Guapo's design
to make a large quantity of "turtle sausage-meat," so that they might
have a supply for many days, as by this time even Guapo himself was
getting tired of the horse-flesh "charqui."

They were about returning to camp, when their attention was drawn to two
dark objects upon the sand-beach a little farther on. These objects were
in motion, and at first they believed they were a pair of "mad
tortoises" that had not yet returned to the water, although they were
close to its edge.

Led on by curiosity our party approached them, and saw that one only was
a tortoise, and one of the largest kind, being nearly three feet in
diameter. The other animal was a small caiman or alligator.

As our travellers drew near they saw that these two creatures were
engaged in a fierce and deadly combat. Now, it is a curious fact that
the larger alligators and crocodiles are among the most destructive
enemies which the turtles have, eating thousands of the latter while
they are still tiny little creatures and unable to defend themselves;
and, on the other hand, that the turtles prey extensively on the young
of both alligators and crocodiles, eating them whenever they can catch
them! I say this is a curious fact in natural history, and it seems a
sort of retaliatory principle established between these two kinds of
reptiles, as if they ate one another's offspring _en revanche_.

There is no feeling of revenge, however, in the matter. It is merely an
instinct of appetite by which both kinds will eat almost any small fry
they come across. In fact, the alligators and crocodiles not only eat
the young of the turtles, but their own young as well. That is, the _old
males_ do; and it has been stated, that the males of some species of
tortoises have a similar unnatural appetite.

The turtle of which we are speaking is one of the most carnivorous of
the whole race, and one of the fiercest in its nature too; so much so,
that it has earned the name of the "fierce tortoise." It will eat fish
and small crustacea, and almost any living thing it finds in the water,
which is not too large for it. It is extremely expert in catching its
prey. It lies concealed at the bottom among the roots of flags and
nymphae; and when any small fish chances to pass it, by means of its long
neck darts out its head and seizes upon its unsuspectin