e the jurara
could not be killed by an arrow, because it never shows more than the
tip of its snout above water, and any arrow hitting it in a direct
course would glance harmlessly from its shell. A good bowman among the
Indians will rarely miss shooting in this way,--long practice and native
skill enabling him to guess within an inch of where his weapon will
fall.

In the towns of the Lower Amazon, where turtles are brought to market, a
small square hole may be observed in the shells of these creatures.
That is the mark of the arrow-head.

Guapo lost no time in turning his turtle inside out, and converting part
of it into a savoury supper, while the remainder was fried into
sausage-meat, and put away for the following day.

But on that following day a much larger stock of sausage-meat was
procured from a very different animal, and that was a "cow."

"How?" you exclaim,--"a cow in the wild forests of the Amazon! Why, you
have said that no cattle--either cows or horses--can exist there without
man to protect them, else they would be devoured by pumas, jaguars, and
bats. Perhaps they had arrived at some settlement where cows were
kept?"

Not a bit of it; your conjecture, my young friend, is quite astray.
There was not a civilised settlement for many hundreds of miles from
where Guapo got his cow--nor a cow neither, of the sort you are thinking
of. But there are more kinds of cows than one; and, perhaps, you may
have heard of a creature called the "fish-cow?" Well, that is the sort
of cow I am speaking of. Some term it the "sea-cow," but this is an
improper name for it, since it also inhabits fresh-water rivers
throughout all tropical America. It is known as the _Manati_, and the
Portuguese call it "_peixe hoi_," which is only "fish-cow" done into
Portuguese.

It is a curious creature the fish-cow, and I shall offer you a short
description of it. It is usually about seven feet in length, and five
round the thickest part of the body, which latter is quite smooth, and
tapers off into a horizontal flat tail, semicircular in shape. There
are no hind-limbs upon the animal, but just behind the head are two
powerful fins of an oval shape. There is no neck to be perceived; and
the head, which is not very large, terminates in a large mouth and
fleshy lips, which are not unlike those of a cow: hence its name of
"cow-fish." There are stiff bristles on the upper lip, and a few thinly
scattered hairs over the rest of