BILLY THROWN I13 



see. We spent the entire afternoon exploring the contact, 

 and studying the effects of the combination of hot lava and 

 gigantic force. At dusk we sat down to another roast and 

 another evening of stories. 



The morning brought us to the first of December, and 

 we saddled up to begin our return journey. Billy was 

 riding one of Hall's horses which had tried the previous 

 day to buck some; but this morning as he mounted, the 

 horse went at it with such earnestness, that after tearing 

 one boot to pieces, he pitched Billy off; then proceeded to 

 buck off the saddle, and run away. However, he was 

 easily caught again; for he had worked so hard that he 

 was tired out. After this we put the pack on his back, 

 and he tried to buck this off, but it was wrapped around 

 his belly and as he had used up his best energy, he gave 

 it up and went along like a lamb the rest of the day. We 

 struck off across the pampa, and a little after noon reached 

 Hall's house, where we had lunch and then went out to 

 see some localities he had to show us, finally spending the 

 night at his house. 



While here he gave me the skins of three Patagonian 

 hares which we had seen several times but could not get 

 close enough to shoot. These hares, so called, are really 

 cavies, closely related to the Guinea pig, but in adapting 

 themselves to the open and barren prairie they have de- 

 veloped long legs (especially the hind ones), with the 

 general appearance of a jack rabbit, though the ears are 

 not so long. In every way they take the place of our prairie 

 jack rabbit, and for a long time I thought they were really 

 members of the rabbit family. In one respect they are 

 quite peculiar, traveling in groups of from two to ten 

 (sometimes more) and following one behind the other, 

 so that as they leap they give the appearance of being parts 

 of one long animal. 



I further arranged for some skulls and skins to be shipped 

 to me the next winter. The children had collected birds' 



