56 HURLING THE BOLAS. 



.AP^ 



these can be hurled to the greatest distance. The main 

 difficulty in using either lazo or bolas is to ride so well as to 

 be able at full speed, and while suddenly turning about, to 

 whirl them so steadily round the head, as to take aim : on 

 foot any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I 

 was amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls 

 round my head, by accident the free one struck a bush ; and 

 its revolving motion being thus destroyed, it immediately 

 fell to the ground, and like magic caught one hind leg of 

 my horse ; the other ball was then jerked out of my hand, 

 and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old 

 practised animal, and knew what it meant; otherwise he 

 would probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. 

 The Gauchos roared with laughter ; they cried out that they 

 had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before 

 seen a man caught by himself. 



During the two succeeding days, I reached the furthest 

 point which I was anxious to examine. The country wore 

 the same aspect, till at last the fine green turf became more 

 wearisome than a dusty turnpike road. We everywhere saw 

 great numbers of partridges {Nothura major). These birds 

 do not go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves like the 

 English kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on 

 horseback by riding round and round in a circle, or rather 

 in a spire, so as to approach closer each time, may knock 

 on the head as many as he pleases. The more common 

 method is to catch them with a running noose, or little lazo, 

 made of the stem of an ostrich's feather, fastened to the 

 end of a long stick. A boy on a quiet old horse will 

 frequently thus catch thirty or forty in a day. In Arctic 

 North America* the Indians catch the Varying Hare by 

 walking spirally round and round it, when on its form : the 

 middle of the day is reckoned the best time, when the sun 

 is high, and the shadow of the hunter not very long. 



On our return to Maldonado, we followed rather a 

 different line of road. Near Pan de Azucar, a landmark 

 well known to all those who have sailed up the Plata, I 

 stayed a day at the house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. 

 Early in the morning we ascended the Sierra de las Animas. 

 By the aid of the rising sun the scenery was almost 

 picturesque. To the westward the view extended over an 

 immense level plain as far as the Mount, at Monte Video, 

 and to the eastward, over the mammillated country of 



* Heame's " Journey," p. 383. 



