HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 53 



when I killed it with a kick. Although a small animal, 

 measuring but three feet four to six inches from the teeth 

 to the tip of the tail, these red wolves are most courageous ; 

 they seem to have no fear whatever of man. In another 

 district one of them ate the leather slings of my rifle from 

 the tent in which I was sleeping, and next morning, instead 

 of making off, remained under a bush in the camp, where I 

 shot it. On a third occasion that I remember I had killed 

 an ibis, and as I walked up a wolf ran out and seized the bird 

 right in front of me. When I came close it dropped the ibis, 

 but stood growling and snarling over it, disputing possession 

 until I was within a yard or two, when it ran to attack me, 

 only, of course, to receive the second barrel of my gun. The 

 immediate vicinity of the cordillera appears to be the habi- 

 tat of these Magellan wolves, for I never met with them 

 elsewhere. 



In fact, the best sport in Patagonia is to be obtained in 

 the neighbourhood of the Andes, for about their lower spurs 

 and foothills, as well as upon the country immediately be- 

 low, where a chain of lakes lies linked for hundreds of miles, 

 all the larger animals are to be found. Guanaco and ostrich 

 abound on the lower slopes and the adjacent levels, while 

 higher in the mountain region guemal and wild cattle have 

 their home. Pumas exist everywhere, but are more numer- 

 ous in the rocky escarpments of the lower hills. These 

 five species make up the hunter's list in Patagonia, which 

 in this, as in all else, is chary of her gifts to man. Once an 

 Indian was asked why the Good Spirit (Who among the 

 Tehuelches is nameless), when He created the guanaco and 

 the guemal to feed His people, did not add other and larger 

 animals to His benefits. The Indian answered : " For that 

 do not accuse the Good Spirit, for when He dwelt in the cave 

 and made the guanaco for our use, the Gualicho, the Spirit 

 of Evil, made the puma ; when He made paahi (the cavy) 

 the Gualicho made the fox. So the Good Spirit ceased to 



