10 HUNTING CAMPS. 



reached the summit-line. As I see no chance of getting 

 nearer, I lie down and consider the position. The 

 guanaco stands directly facing me, and was evidently in 

 the act of descending a hollow between two of the small 

 hills when his suspicions were aroused. I soon find 

 him with my telescope to be as I expected a very large 

 dark-faced buck, and seeing that he is on the alert I 

 have just picked up my rifle when another buck walks 

 over a ridge within seventy yards on my right. I quickly 

 get the sights in a line with the last comer's] shoulder 

 and pull the trigger. He at once makes off at a gallop, 

 giving no sign whatever of being hit, but my second 

 bullet cuts him down. Then I turn my attention to 

 the first guanaco and find that he has climbed to the 

 higher of the two summits above him, where he pauses 

 for a moment broadside on, clearly outlined against the 

 sky. I fire, but my bullet falls short, knocking up a 

 spurt of sand beneath his body. The old buck gives me 

 no second chance, but vanishes in a twinkling over the 

 brow of the hummock. 



Walking down to the guanaco I have killed, I soon 

 satisfy myself that the first shot had taken effect, as 

 well as the second, and that either would have proved 

 fatal. After gralloching the animal, I collect dry thorns 

 and grass and light a fire, in the hope that the smoke 

 may be observed by one of my gauchos, who would in 

 that case instantly ride it down. Even had I not left 

 orders to that effect at the camp, they would not fail 

 to ride down a smoke, for the gaucho's most strongly 

 marked characteristic is curiosity ; he loves to meet his 

 kind and to hear the news which in the wide solitude 

 of such countries passes from mouth to mouth. It was 

 in this way that the intelligence of Queen Victoria's 



