30 HUNTING CAMPS. 



brought the dogs within fifty yards of him, and I, pressing 

 my horse, was soon not much behind them. For the first 

 half-mile the ground was so blind with dense scrub that it 

 was all in favour of the buck, but presently leaving this we 

 passed out on to the long, rolling, open pampa, where Tom 

 began to gain, and taking the ground magnificently, closed 

 in on the guanaco, passing him and snapping at his throat. 

 The buck swerved, and Chichi, taking advantage of the 

 movement, seized a flank, throwing the buck off his balance, 

 when Tom went in and caught him by the throat. The 

 guanaco at bay can, however, be a nasty antagonist for 

 hounds, so pulling up I finished the affair with a shot. 



After this encounter with the buck Tom improved in 

 every way, eventually gaining some very honourable wounds 

 in a combat with a Magellan wolf. I found that long runs 

 pressed hard on the hounds, as the thorns and stones left 

 them sorefooted. In fact, unless they ran into the guanaco 

 within the first four hundred yards, the chase generally 

 ended in the quarry getting clear away, more especially if 

 the ground was at all steep. In running ostriches the same 

 facts hold good, though with the birds, if the dogs failed to 

 obtain a fair start, they gave up the pursuit of themselves. 

 In many district cavies and foxes were so numerous that 

 unless laid on the hounds took no notice of them. 



Once in the neighbourhood of the cordillera I came 

 across an old red v/olf (Canis magellanicus) and laid on the 

 dogs. The wolf held his ground, making no attempt to run, 

 and fought so gallantly that I tried to call off the dogs not 

 without their scars but before I could make them obey one 

 of the hounds, and also the old wolf, had been so severely 

 hurt that it was too late, and he went down snarling and 

 snapping to the last. 



I have always regretted my bad luck with regard to 

 pumas during niy time in Patagonia, for, although I fre- 

 quently heard them in the night about the camp, by day I 



