HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 51 



When I reached it I found I was within eighty yards of him, 

 as he lay sleepily only a few feet from the game-track. I 

 was beautifully placed for a shot, but a second look told me 

 that this was not the great brindled beast I had first seen, 

 but the third animal, which was nothing like as large and 

 with far inferior horns. I was quite contented, neverthe- 

 less, as I believed it to be only a matter of time, for I knew 

 his companions could not be far away, but were probably 

 approaching up the game-track behind him and just out of 

 sight over the edge of the ridge. I waited for several minutes 

 in expectation, but as they failed to appear I began to fear 

 that they had turned off the main track. There was noth- 

 ing for me to do but to remain where I was, as I could not 

 advance without being discovered by the young bull in 

 front, and to return on my tracks did not seem to promise 

 any better chance of success. 



I could have shot the small bull easily, but I had set my 

 heart on the two patriarchs, whose mighty horns I resolved 

 to have or none. For more than an hour the troublesome 

 four-year-old kept his position and forced me to keep mine, 

 and when he did at last rise he left the game-path and made 

 straight towards me. Every moment as he moved I ex- 

 pected to see the horns of the other bulls rise over the ridge, 

 but he lumbered on slowly till he was within forty yards of 

 me, when suddenly his whole aspect changed he broke 

 into an unwieldy trot which almost immediately became a 

 gallop. At the same time there was a crashing above me, 

 and, looking up, I saw a herd of fifteen or more cattle tear- 

 ing along the mountainside till they disappeared down a 

 gully. This herd must have fed right up to windward of 

 me, and among them probably the two big bulls, for, from an 

 examination of the tracks, I found these two had branched 

 off the main game-trail and joined the herd, of whose pres- 

 ence I remained ignorant until too late. At one time the 

 whole herd, with the bulls, in travelling upwards, had passed 



