the ground itself was in
motion.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE PUMA AND THE GREAT ANT-BEAR.

All at once the attention of the boy was called away from the crawling
millions. A rustling among some dead leaves was heard. It appeared to
proceed from the edge of the glade, not far from the ant-hills. The
branches of the underwood were seen to move, and the next moment a
slender cylindrical object, about a foot and a half in length, was
protruded out from the leaves. Had there not been a pair of small eyes
and ears near the farther end of this cylindrical object, no one would
have taken it for the head and snout of an animal. But Leon saw the
little sparkling black eyes, and he therefore conjectured that it was
some such creature.

The next moment the body came into view, and a singular creature it was.
It was about the size of a very large Newfoundland dog, though of a
different shape. It was covered all over with long brownish hair, part
of which looked so coarse as to resemble dry grass or bristles. On each
shoulder was a wide strip of black, bordered with whitish bands; and the
tail, which was full three feet long, was clothed with a thick growth of
coarse hair, several inches in length, that looked like strips of
whalebone. This was carried aloft, and curving over the back. But the
most curious feature of the animal was its snout.

Talk of the nose of a grey hound. It would be a "pug" in comparison!
That of this animal was full twice as long, and not half so thick, with
a little mouth not over an inch in size, and without a single tooth! It
was certainly the oddest snout Leon had ever seen. The legs, too, were
remarkable. They were stout and thick, the hinder ones appearing much
shorter than the fore-legs; but this was because the creature in its
hind-feet was _plantigrade_, that is, it walked with the whole of its
soles touching the surface, which only bears and a few other sorts of
quadrupeds do.

Its fore-feet, too, were oddly placed upon the ground. They had four
long claws upon each, but these claws, instead of being spread out, as
in the dog or cat, were all folded backward along the sole, and the
creature, to avoid treading on them, actually walked on the sides of its
feet! The claws were only used for scraping up the ground, and then it
could bring them forward in a perpendicular position, like the blade of
a hoe, or the teeth of a garden-rake. Of course, with feet furnished in
such an out-of-the-way fashi