HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 39 



which I undertook with one of my men, and passing round 

 the great lake we came, on the second day, to the Rio de 

 Los Antiguos, and turned along its bank into a valley 

 which seemed to run between frowning cliffs into the cor- 

 dillera. After following the valley for some distance we 

 forded to the western bank of the river and pitched camp, 

 on a spot clear of thicket and close to a forest that looked 

 very green to my eyes after our long journey over the 

 pampas. 



That same evening, close to the camp, I found the 

 tracks of a guemal that had come down to drink at the 

 river. It had been stalked and attacked by a puma and 

 her cub, but had managed to get away into the woods, 

 where I was unable to follow the trail, and so did not see 

 how the unequal contest ended. 



Next morning we pushed on up the valley. From the 

 top of the cliffs a tableland stretched westwards to the 

 valley of the Jeinemeni, and I fancied this strip of high 

 country should be a likely hunting ground. And in fact, 

 as I was riding the following afternoon along the top of the 

 barranca, a young guemal buck suddenly sprang out from 

 some rocks in front of me. As I was the first human being 

 he had ever seen, he halted in curiosity to have a good 

 look. His pretty attitude, no less than his confidence, 

 made it hard for me to shoot, and had we not been in urgent 

 need of meat I should have let him go, as his -horns were 

 but four or five inches long. However, Nemesis followed 

 at once, for, though I hid the meat while I went to fetch 

 my man and the other horses, the condors took such full 

 toll of the deer that we had a very scanty meal after all. 

 Before leaving this tableland I shot another young buck 

 in the failing light of a cold evening, 



My next chance and my first at a warrantable buck 

 came at a most inopportune moment. The river had 

 risen during our stay on the tableland, its shallow current 



