36 HUNTING CAMPS. 



siderable numbers of wild cattle roam in the forests of 

 Mount Frias ; guemal, the beautiful deer peculiar to the 

 Andes, are to be found in the same district, while among 

 the rocks a quantity of pumas and Magellan wolves make 

 their lairs. To the north and west stretch enormous areas, 

 through which great herds of game wander. 



I gained my first view of the Patagonian Andes across 

 the rough waters of Lake Buenos Aires. I had ridden 

 six hundred miles over the pampas, looking forward to the 

 time when I should at last come to the eastern limit of the 

 guemal deer, of which, so far as I know, there were at that 

 time but two specimens in England, both presented by the 

 Argentine Government to the British Museum. 



The huemul or guemal is the sole representative of the 

 deer tribe in southern Patagonia, and it inhabits the entire 

 range of the Andes. Naturalists have placed guemal in two 

 main divisions, the Peruvian and the Patagonian. The few 

 Peruvian specimens which I have seen are inferior to their 

 cousins of the south, being smaller and less symmetrical. 

 The Patagonian deer stands some 36 or 38 inches at the 

 shoulder, and weighs, I should judge, though I never had 

 the opportunity of putting an animal in the scales, some 

 160 Ibs. The horns in the British Museum are poor, and 

 I had very great hopes of being able to secure some finer 

 specimens. 



Early in my travels I had been told that the guemal 

 (I have preferred this form of the word as it more nearly 

 approaches to the name as locally spoken) extended in its 

 range to the Atlantic, and some few animals were said to 

 haunt the highlands near the outlet of the Rio Deseado. 

 But as far as my own experience goes I am inclined to believe 

 that the guemal does not stray far from the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the Andes. 



In Patagonia itself very little was known of this animal ; 

 in fact, for a long time I met no single individual there 



