THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 13 



hindquarter of cavy, when down the stream I hear 

 the honk of geese. I catch the cruzado, slip on his 

 bridle, throw a rug over him and ride off to find the 

 birds. Round the first bend I come in sight of them, 

 two ganders with white backs and grey breasts, two 

 brown females with their chestnut heads upland geese. 

 The stalk is easy enough, the Patagonian goose not 

 having learned the wisdom his congeners acquire in other 

 regions of the earth, so I get within eighty yards. I pick 

 the nearer of the brown females as she will be tenderer, 

 put in a solid bullet, take a fine sight and miss her 

 handsomely. The geese rise and swing off down stream. 



Regretfully, I retrace my steps, build a little fire, and 

 cutting off part of the cavy's hindquarter prepare a 

 roast, skewer it camp-fashion upon sticks which I drive 

 into the ground opposite the hottest part of the fire, 

 While I wait for it to cook, I fall asleep, which does not 

 very much matter, as the cruzado will be all the fresher 

 for a two-hours' off saddle. At length the roast is 

 cooked and eaten, the two hours of rest gone, and I am 

 once more in the saddle. 



I now begin to bear northwards, as I want to strike 

 the valley of the Senguerr River, which lies as far as I 

 can judge about eight or nine miles off in that direction. 

 In Patagonia no one uses the word mile, the distances 

 are so great that all reckoning is counted in leagues ; 

 ten leagues is held to be a good day's journey with pack- 

 horses. Smaller distances are designated as parts or 

 fractions of a league, a habit curiously at variance with 

 that common in Lower Canada, where the settler or 

 trapper will often define his position by saying, " I was 

 within two acres of the outlet of the lake." But then 

 farmland, even in vast Canada, is reckoned by the acre, 



