1 76 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



had been travelling. Here I unsaddled and picketed my horse in the grass 

 on the outskirts of the wood, and in a sheltered place within I succeeded in 

 starting a fire, though with considerable difficulty, about which I remained 

 for the rest of the day and night, endeavoring to dry my shoes and other 

 clothing. Toward dawn the wind calmed and it grew colder, so that on 

 the following morning the ground was covered with from three to four 

 inches of snow, frozen sufficiently in most places to bear the weight of a 

 horse. The presence of the snow precluded the possibility of my spend- 

 ing the time to any advantage in a search for fossils in the adjoining bad 

 lands. Thinking, however, not to allow all my labor and hardships of the 

 past twenty-four hours to count for nothing, I decided, rather than to re- 

 trace my steps and thus regain the valley, to strike out across the bad 

 lands in the direction of camp, which T judged to be distant about sixty- 

 five miles, hoping that in the course of my journey I might make some 

 additional observations of interest concerning the geology or geography 

 of the region. 



I had proceeded only a few hundred yards, when a deer came walking 

 out of a gully down the slope directly toward me. The small lunch with 

 which I had provided myself on leaving camp had long since been ex- 

 hausted, and for some time I had been living on the bodies of red-breasted 

 meadow larks and other birds grilled over an open fire. This opportunity 

 for securing a saddle of venison, though I could see that the animal was a 

 doe, was most welcome, and I was not long in despatching her with my 

 revolver. What was my disappointment, however, to find, on going to 

 dress the carcass, that it was not only a doe, but in milk. A moment 

 later I observed the fawn and a nearly grown yearling buck emerging 

 from the same gulch from which the mother had but lately appeared. Well 

 aware of the superior quality of the flesh of a prime fawn as compared 

 with that of an old doe in milk, I resolved to sacrifice one more life, and 

 as the little creature in all innocence stood obliquely facing me, I sent a 

 ball which I intended should strike just within and above the point of the 

 shoulder and range diagonally through the body to the heart. My aim 

 was poor, however, and it took effect in the loin instead. As I fired a 

 second shot I did not notice that the third animal was steadily advancing 

 so as to come in range with the fawn, and my second ball only entered 

 the brain of the latter after it had come in contact with and carried away 

 the entire symphysial region of the lower jaw of the former. This necessi- 



