14 HUNTING CAMPS. 



environment the guanaco fulfils this ideal. There are as 

 yet no ring-fences and but little barbed wire in the interior, 

 where indeed the hunter may ride for weeks, and even 

 months, and perhaps never see anything save the landscape 

 and the game upon it. 



Of course the guanaco lacks one, and that the most 

 important of the desiderata of a quarry he carries no 

 trophy. The black face and the scarred neck of one old 

 fighting buck is very like that of another, so that after the 

 hunter has shot three or four, he has before him no alluring 

 prospect, such as the chance of securing a particularly fine 

 or unusual specimen, a hope which, in the case of horned 

 game, serves to keep his interest always at high-water 

 mark. But, despite this fact, the chase of the guanaco and 

 the fair stalking of a big buck sometimes presents diffi- 

 culties which can be relied on to keep the hunter's en- 

 thusiasm well awake. 



Those who have seen the animal as he appears on the 

 farms near the coast can form no idea of the wariness of 

 his brethren in such spots as the canadon * of the Senguerr 

 River. Close to the coast the considerable number of 

 guanaco that inhabit the allotted lands are little molested 

 by the shepherds who come and go among them, for it is 

 certain that while a man can procure mutton he will never 

 hanker after the dry and stringy meat provided by the 

 wild animal. From time to time, when the herds of the 

 latter grow too numerous, a campaign is organised against 

 them, but the lesson learned in the three or four days of 

 war soon passes away, so that during the greater part of the 

 year they remain comparatively tame and accessible. But 

 in the canadon of the Senguerr, through which I travelled 

 in October, it was impossible to approach openly within a 

 mile of any animal. It is here that the Tehuelche Indians 

 have erected their permanent toldos, and as they habitually 



* Valley. 



