THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 11 



death travelled through the far interior of Patagonia in 

 an astonishingly short space of time. 



Sometimes, however, as might be expected, pampa 

 news is not very reliable, as, for example, when -in the 

 year above alluded to, a report came up from the coast 

 that the Russians had invaded India and the French 

 were in London. This rumour may or may not have 

 been traceable to a couple of prospectors, who, having 

 fought under Villebois de Mareuil in South Africa and 

 been wounded there, afterwards took ship in one of the 

 returning horse-boats to Buenos Aires, from whence 

 they had drifted down into Patagonia. 



I cut up the guanaco and place it as far as circum- 

 stances will permit beyond the reach of the ubiquitous 

 foxes, and then, retracing my steps to the cruzado, I 

 mount and resume my search for game. In this I am 

 almost immediately successful, for as I round the last 

 of the hummocks, I notice a cavy springing across a 

 dry lagoon. He has not seen me and in a second I am 

 out of the saddle. The cavy is a curious animal not 

 unlike an English hare, but twice as large ; its method of 

 progression, however, is rather that of the kangaroo. 

 As the cavy approaches the further side of the lagoon, 

 he stops and sits up on his hind legs, his small and 

 delicate fore-paws looking strangely out of proportion. 

 For once the cover is good, for there is near me a patch 

 of dry, white thorn reaching to within fifty yards of the 

 edge of the mud lagoon. On my left hand I slip a kind 

 of rough, fingerless glove made of skin, which is a great 

 protection, and crawl up under the thorn bushes. 

 Peering round them, I see the cavy is still sitting at 

 about a hundred yards' distance. I slip a solid bullet 

 instead of the soft-nosed one into my rifle and shoot the 



