12 DOMESTIC QUADRUPEDS. 



mountains, as the temptations of pasture may 

 induce them. When any are required for 

 slaughter, the owner, or his herdsman, fgaucho,} 

 rides in pursuit of them, and casting his lasso 

 over their horns, brings them captive to the 

 settlement. Their meat is exceedingly well 

 flavoured ; and this may in some measure be 

 attributed to the quality of their food, which is 

 chiefly a herb, a species of Chenopodium, bear- 

 ing tall, plumy, and fragrant flowers, and which 

 covers the soil in sufficient abundance to supply 

 the place of a grass pasturage. When the re- 

 sidents have more beef than they can imme- 

 diately consume, they cut it into broad slices, 

 and expose it to the sun until it becomes dry 

 and hard ; in this form, or, as it is usually 

 termed, jerked, (a corruption of the Spanish 

 word charqui,) it remains unchanged for a long 

 time, and if well packed is very eligible as a sea- 

 store. The other domestic animals are horses, 

 of a breed more remarkable for bone than blood, 

 but which are tall, active, and docile ; goats, 

 which are numerous, and sold at low prices ; and 

 swine, which are but few, and, from their foul- 

 feeding, held in little esteem. 



Amongst the more remarkable quadrupeds, 

 /era naturce, that obtain on this coast, we find 

 the puma, or American lion ; the only large 



