22 HUNTING CAMPS. 



dom his congeners acquire in other regions of the earth, so 

 I get within eighty yards. I pick the nearer of the brown 

 females as she will be tenderer, put in a solid bullet, take a 

 fine sight and miss her handsomely. The geese rise and 

 swing off down stream. 



Regretfully, I retrace my steps, build a little fire, and 

 cutting off part of the cavy's hindquarter prepare a roast, 

 skewer it camp-fashion upon sticks which I drive into the 

 ground opposite the hottest part of the fire. While I wait 

 for it to cook, I fall asleep, which does not very much mat- 

 ter, as the cntzado will be all the fresher for a two hours' off 

 saddle. At length the roast is cooked and eaten, the two 

 hours of rest gone, and I am once more in the saddle. 



I now begin to bear northwards, as I want to strike the 

 valley of the Senguerr River, which lies as far as I can judge 

 about eight or nine miles off in that direction. In Pata- 

 gonia no one uses the word mile, the distances are so great 

 that all reckoning is counted in leagues ; ten leagues is held 

 to be a good day's journey with pack-horses. Smaller dis- 

 tances are designated as parts or fractions of a league, a 

 habit curiously at variance with that common in Lower 

 Canada, where the settler or trapper will often define his 

 position by saying, " I was within two acres of the outlet of 

 the lake." But then farmland, even in vast Canada, is 

 reckoned by the acre, whereas in sterile Patagonia no farmer 

 could make a living on less than five square leagues. 



The landscape through which I ride in the afternoon is 

 much the same as that I had passed over in the morning, 

 and it is not until I again come in sight of the river that I 

 see any game. As I descend the barranca cliff of the cana- 

 don, I discover a herd of eight guanaco on the top of the cliff 

 on the opposite bank ; they are a long way off, but, are 

 sharply visible against the sky. I am just wondering 

 whether they are worth a swim across the stream, which is 

 not very wide, when suddenly two other guanaco appear 



