The JAGUAR is as savage as it is formidable, but does not often attack men. Its headquarters are the immense forests running from Central America to Southern Brazil; and as all great forests are little inhabited, the jaguar is seldom encountered by men. By the banks of the great rivers it is semi-aquatic; it swims and climbs with equal ease, and will attack animals on board boats anchored in the rivers. As there are few animals of great size in these forests, its great strength is not often exercised, as is that of the lion; but it is the personification of concentrated force, and its appearance is well worth studying from that point of view. The spots are larger and squarer than in the leopard, the head ponderous, the forearms and feet one mass of muscle, knotted under the velvet skin. On the Amazon it draws its food alike from the highest tree-tops and the river-bed; in the former it catches monkeys in the branches, fish in the shallows of the rivers, and scoop out turtles' eggs from the sand banks. Humboldt, who visited these regions when the white population was scarce, declared that 400 jaguars were killed annually, and 200 skins exported from Buenos Aires alone. It was clearly common on the Pampas in his day, and made as great havoc among the cattle and horse as it does today.
