I was very curious about the new dish which I was to taste for breakfast. The very white meat of the young jaguar, which was about the size of an ordinary shepherd's colley, looked very tempting, and I put some pieces of it before the fire, while Tiger made his breakfast entirely of it. I tasted it when it browned, and it was very nice, though it had a musky flavour which prevented me from eating much of it. Hence I applied once more to the deer meat, which I liked better, and concluded my meal with the rest of the honeycomb which I had carried on Jack, wrapped in large magnolia leaves and a piece of deer hide. Tiger revelled in his meat, and on saddling packed up the rest for supper. On this day we followed the stream, which flowed for about five miles westward, but then suddenly turned round a tall hill to the east, and probably fell into the Rio Grande. Here we left it, however, and rode up a small stream which joined it and came from the west. We followed the narrow valley through which it ran and found there a rather broad, though at times stony road. It was bordered on both sides by granitic hills, and ran rather steeply up to the heights, where it expanded into a table-land. This plateau lay on the top of the mountains which we had seen to the west when riding up, and I resolved to follow it in that direction, so as if possible to reach the declivity on the other side before night surprised us, as the barrenness of these lofty plateaus recalled unpleasant reminiscences. This plateau was about fifteen miles in breadth, and in the afternoon we reached its western side, where an endless plain stretched out at our feet, bounded in the remote distance by very lofty mountains, a few spurs of which ran out into the valley. The valley was thickly covered with grass, and, as it seemed to me, well watered and wooded. From our stand-point it must be at least one hundred and fifty miles broad, and to the south we could not see its termination. The plain, as far as we could survey it, was covered with herds of buffalo, while nearer to us deer and wild horses were grazing. How many thousands of men could easily find a living here, while in old Europe law-suits are carried on for years about an acre of land, and yet I was the only white man whose eye had rested on the inexhaustible treasures which nature had stored up here. Still the time will come when the plough will cross this beautiful plain in all directions; the smoke will rise from the hearths of prosperous planters; the church bells will summon the neighbours to church, and "hell in harness" (as the Americans call the locomotive) will snort and whistle through their valley.