Maracaybo, there are 1,200,000 head of
cattle, 180,000 horses, and 90,000 mules, which belong to
individual proprietors. In the Pampas of Buenos Ayres there are
12,000,000 cows and 3,000,000 horses belonging to private persons,
besides the far greater multitude which are wild, and wander
altogether beyond the reach of man. Considerable revenues are
realized from the sale of the skins of these animals, for they are
so common that the carcasses are of scarcely any value. They are
at the pains only to look after the young of their herds, which
are marked once a-year with the initial letter of the owner.
Fourteen or fifteen thousand are marked by the greater proprietors
every year, of which five or six thousand are annually
sold."--(Vol. vi. 97.)

The enormous number of beasts of prey which multiply with this vast
accumulation of animals to be devoured, as well those introduced by
man as those furnished by the hand of nature, renders the life of many
of the inhabitants of these regions little else than a constant
struggle with wild animals. Many hairbreadth escapes and heroic
adventures are recounted by the natives, which would pass for fabulous
if not stated on such unquestionable authority as that of M. Humboldt,
and supported by the concurring testimony of other travellers. The
number of alligators, in particular, on the Orinoco, the Rio Apure,
and their tributary streams, is prodigious; and contests with them
constitute a large portion of the legendary tales of the Indian and
European settlers in the forest.

"The numerous wild animals," says Humboldt, "which inhabit the
forests on the shores of the Orinoco, have made apertures for
themselves in the wall of vegetation and foliage by which the
woods are bounded, out of which they come forth to drink in the
river. Tigers, tapirs, jaguars, boars, besides numberless lesser
quadrupeds, issue out of these dark arches in the green
wilderness, and cross the strip of sand which generally lies
between it and the edge of the water, formed by the large space
which is annually devastated and covered with shingle or mud,
during the rise of the water in the rainy season. These singular
scenes have always possessed a great attraction for me. The
pleasure experienced was not merely that of a naturalist in the
objects of his study; it belongs to all men who have been educated
in the