44 HUNTING CAMPS. 



afraid of only wounding without enough probability of 

 a kiU. 



One day when riding down to the low forest where 

 I had seen a guanaco standing actually in the edge of 

 the trees I found the tracks of a herd numbering a 

 dozen or more, and I followed them for several hours. 

 I was just thinking of taking a few minutes' rest, when 

 I heard a stick crack on my left front, as an outlying 

 cow gave the alarm to her companions. Running over 

 the rise, I was in time to see a bull as he dashed away. 

 I got in a stern shot which checked him, and the second 

 barrel of the Paradox behind the shoulder brought him 

 down, but even then it needed a third bullet to finish 

 the business. 



On another occasion I spied three large animals from 

 a great distance. Two of them were lying down, and I 

 could only see the quarters of the third, whose head and 

 fore part were hidden by a bush. The cattle were 

 several hundred feet above me and considerably over a 

 mile away. In order to approach them without getting 

 to windward, it was requisite to make a very wide circuit 

 and to come down upon them from above, where the 

 ground, through the telescope, appeared to be covered 

 with huge boulders of basalt, that promised adequate 

 cover for the stalk. The climb to the top of the moun- 

 tain was long and hard. I made my way up the steep 

 gully of a narrow torrent, crossing many of its ice-cold 

 tributaries, until at length I reached the crest of the 

 peak, and was rewarded by a view of the most magnifi- 

 cent spread of scenery. When heated in the chase the 

 hunter is not always actively conscious of the beauty of 

 his environment, as he has time and inclination to be 

 during the many long pauses and waits of stalking, yet 



