HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 31 



he was willing to accompany me along the shores of 

 the lake, nothing could induce him to venture into 

 even the outermost ring of the mountains. Following 

 his directions, however, I spent a number of days 

 riding through all the likely defiles which sweep from 

 the ridges to the level of Lake Buenos Aires. I had 

 shot several guanaco and a couple of ostriches, and had 

 patrolled the full length of the eastern lake-shore, 

 without discovering so much as the track of a guemal, 

 although the Indian, who had in the interval taken his 

 departure, had pointed out this particular area as the 

 place where from time to time his tribesmen had killed 

 deer. 



Apart from its value as a natural history specimen, 

 the meat of a deer would have been very welcome in 

 camp, for game at that time happened to be very 

 scarce on the northern shores of the lake, so much so, 

 in fact, that after several days' hunting, which resulted 

 in a total bag of two upland geese, food was at so low 

 an ebb with us that we were reduced to eating a horse 

 we were obliged to shoot. As birds were few and far 

 between on that arid strip of country, I did not carry a 

 shot-gun, but had to deal with those I saw to the best 

 of my power with a rifle. In this way I shot ducks, 

 swans, geese, and ibis. I had met with an accident 

 that prevented my getting about as readily as usual, 

 but as soon as I could travel I rode on the back trail as 

 far as the River Fenix, near to which I had seen some 

 game, and there I found and stalked a single guanaco. 

 The death of this old buck, besides being most oppor- 

 tune from the commissariat point of view, seemed to 

 mark the turning point of my ill-luck in hunting, for 

 on the next day I shot another guanaco close to camp, 



