50 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



are Australian. Not over fifteen hundred can be grazed on 

 a league, which is about one sheep to every seven acres, 

 and they live mostly on the bushes in spite of their thorns, 

 eating even the malaspina when the thorns are coming 

 out and are still soft, so that men who have cleared their 

 land of the brush have found themselves poorer, instead 

 of better off. The only large carnivors are the pumas, 

 which are now pretty scarce except in the mountains ; and 

 even they seem to be much inferior to their North American 

 representative, the mountain lion, for a rider will often 

 corner one and kill it with his stirrup iron or some similar 

 weapon. Thus it is possible simply to turn the sheep out 

 on the pampas, a herder riding out every morning to 

 bunch them up and see that they do not wander too far 

 from water or get mixed with other "mobs." When 

 inside a fence they are inspected but once a week or so. 

 Thus the typical peon who herds has a comparatively 

 easy time, in good weather often being back from a day's 

 work by ten in the morning, though in the lambing season 

 and in bad weather he may be out all day. These herders 

 are mostly natives. Each one owns his own horse and is 

 very independent. If he does not like a piece of work or 

 the owner, he simply rides away and begins visiting around 

 until he feels like taking another job. For months he may 

 visit around, for hospitality is so much the custom, that 

 he can live on nothing, except his tobacco money. This 

 has become in many cases such a nuisance that many of 

 the larger estancias have had to limit the length of visits, 

 and some even make a small charge for transients. This 

 last, however, is very unpopular through the country; for 

 every one when he travels must stop at the estancias. 

 When we left Zahn's he sold us a bag of grain for our horses, 

 and gave us half a sheep. We started south, keeping well 

 back from the coast to avoid a notorious stretch of deep 

 mud. 



All went swimmingly until toward six, when we entered 



