8 HUNTING CAMPS. 



he be not asked to jump anything, will carry his rider 

 in safety across almost any natural obstacle that may 

 arise. The horse I am riding to-day is known as the 

 cruzado, so called because of the cross markings he 

 shows, his near hind leg and the off fore each bearing a 

 white stocking. He is one of the three horses out of 

 the large number I had to do with in Patagonia that 

 could be trusted to fulfil all the requirements of a good 

 shooting horse. Having dismounted, I drop the reins 

 over the cruzadd's head, and prepare to leave him with 

 an easy mind, for I know that even if I do not return 

 for hours, he will inevitably remain quietly within a 

 hundred yards of the same spot. In a country of vast 

 distances this is a very useful acquirement, as few situa- 

 tions can be more trying than that of a hunter, who 

 having dismounted for a stalk, returns from it to see his 

 horse disappearing in the distance, stirrups swinging and 

 reins flying, towards the camp, which is perhaps ten or 

 fifteen miles away. 



No sooner have I reached the bottom of the cleft, than 

 I see three ostriches, as Darwin's rhea is locally called. 

 They have long since spied me and are already nearly 

 half a mile away. Suddenly they turn and run up the 

 steep cliff of the canadon ; are silhouetted for a moment 

 against the blue sky before they disappear over the edge 

 of sight. These ostriches, to continue the Patagonian 

 name, are without exception the wildest and most 

 difficult quarry against which I have ever matched the 

 modern long-range rifle. I have heard it stated as a 

 fact that there is no animal whatever which can, in any 

 way, compare in quickness of sight with certain birds. 

 I have believed .this from very early days when I used 

 to stalk curlew among sand dunes with a rifle. I had 



