"We had tapir steaks for breakfast, and found them very good. They resembled beef, though they were rather more dry than that well-known article of food; we had been rather limited in our supply of fresh provisions, and consequently the tapir steak was not to be despised. The flesh of this animal is highly prized by the natives; it is eaten fresh, like beef or pork, and is preserved by drying or salting. "But this is not the fight I was going to tell about. One day we stopped at a village where there was a tame tapir running among the houses; it was perfectly docile, and allowed the boys to ride on its back as often and as long as they liked. The alcalde of the village told us how it was caught, a few months' before, in a hunting-excursion, only a few miles from the place. [Illustration: HUNTING THE TAPIR.] "The alcalde kept several dogs especially for hunting the tapir. The hunter takes his position in a canoe carefully concealed in the bushes near the end of a tapir's road. The tapir lays out his own path with the skill of an engineer; he goes along this path regularly every morning, from his haunt to his bath in the river, and then from the river to his haunt again. The dogs are let loose near the tapir's retreat, and the frightened animal runs to the river for safety. "He dives and swims with great rapidity, but the hunter is generally successful in capturing him. He is shot or speared as he takes to the water, evading the dogs only to fall into the hands of his human enemy. "On the occasion I speak of the alcalde had gone for his customary sport, and roused a tapir. The keeper of the dogs was with these animals, while the alcalde was waiting at the river ready to shoot the game when it appeared. But it happened to be a female anta, this time, and she had a young tapir with her. The male flees before the dogs, but the female with a cub does nothing of the sort; she remains in her lair and defends the little fellow, who crouches beneath her and indicates his alarm by short, shrill whistles. She never yields, and is a terrible foe for the dogs. Her teeth do effective work on any of them that come too near, and her powerful fore-legs crush their ribs as though they were made of paper. "The alcalde waited, but the tapir did not come. At length one of his men appeared, and said that two of the six dogs had been killed by the tapir and another was severely hurt. They were young dogs, and had not shown proper caution; the old and experienced ones had refrained from venturing within reach of jaws or feet, and confined their attentions to barking at a safe distance.