84 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



the pampa into camp in one day. During the afternoon, 

 as on all occasions when traveling this road, I drank tea at 

 three houses, coming to the second Ventner place about four 

 o'clock. Next morning we learned that since the previous 

 day about six p.m., this Ventner family was richer by a son; 

 so we immediately sent over our congratulations and invited 

 the father to celebrate by dining with us on Wednesday. 



During my absence events had succeeded each other 

 rapidly. Sunday morning the saddle horses had dis- 

 appeared. While the boys were hunting them, they came 

 upon a guanaco which they killed, and spent most of the 

 day skinning it and then stripping the flesh from the bones 

 so these could be mounted for the museum. The horses 

 still failed to turn up, so Monday morning Shumway and 

 Billy started out on foot to find them. First they called 

 at various neighbors to see if they had seen them, but 

 learned nothing. About ten they struck their trail, and 

 followed the tracks until four in the afternoon, when they 

 came up with the horses in the midst of a mixed bunch of 

 mules and colts. The boys came in with the horses just 

 after I got to camp, and they looked pretty well tired out. 

 However, the outfit was all together again, and we picketed 

 the horses for a few nights, on the principle that "it was 

 better to count their ribs than their tracks." 



Sunday afternoon Billy had come into camp with three 

 armadillos (the small pichis of Patagonia) hanging by their 

 tails, all three of which he had caught within twenty paces. 

 Two of them we skinned, and roasted the third. The 

 natives call them good eating, and we saw numbers of the 

 bigger northern species for sale in the markets of Buenos 

 Aires at three to four pesos each. The method of pre- 

 paring them is to open the body and remove the viscera,, 

 then stuff the body with a bread crumb filling and roast 

 the animal slowly in the ashes. They are full of a rich 

 fat, which gives the stuffing an excellent flavor, but there 

 is very little meat on the numerous bones. Whenever we 



