44 



THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



always an easy quarry, in fact it is a shy animal in the districts 

 where it is hunted by Indians.* I crawled along, just a thorn-bush, 

 and that a lean one, between me and detection. I had set my 

 hopes on a low green l)elt of j)oison-scrub, and this I attained 



at last. From it I saw a 

 foot of the big buck's 

 neck and the heads and 

 ears of six more. I had 

 made up my mind to 

 take a fine bead shot, 

 but he orave me no 

 chance of doing so. I 

 had only time to snap 

 him as he saw me. The 

 bullet smashed his neck. 

 As the others ran away 

 I put two shots out of 

 four into one, and killed 

 it as it entered the scrub 

 of thick, thorny, califate 

 bushes that lived hardily 

 there in the valley. I 

 went on after shooting the guanaco and left Fritz and Hughes to 

 cut up the meat. We made a league and a half through the gorge 

 of the Chico when up came Fritz and said the waggon was broken 

 down by, so he explained, a "horse falling on the pole" within a 

 hundred yards of where I had shot the guanaco. This was a disaster 

 indeed. Here were we just doing a good march when this wretched 

 breakdown occurred. We turned the troop and went back only to 

 find the waggon, a league away, coming merrily towards us. They 

 said it could go no farther, but after repairs it achieved a league 

 and a half more. 



Passing along we agreed it was a good country for lions 

 {Kc. pnnia. locally called lions). We encamped beneath a high cliff, 

 sixty feet of moss-grown basaltic rock beside the muddy river, 



THE HUNTKK'S KKXrKN 



Darwin describes the guanaco as "generally wild and extremely wary." 



