io6 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



long neck of the i^uanaco ; a doe is always selected if possible. 

 Extremely expert in its use, the rider's weapon probably reaches 

 its mark, and the quarry, maddened by the tightening of the sogas, 

 bucks and rears, until she becomes hopelessly entangled. 



1 have mentioned that the Tehuelches hunt in pairs. The 

 companion of the Indian who has thrown the bo/as then leaps to the 

 ground and despatches the guanaco. Meantime his comrade has 

 dashed forward at the tail of the herd, and has probably secured 

 another animal. The dogs, too, do their part, and as the storm of 

 the chase sweeps across the pampa, it leaves the ground in its path 

 dotted with the yellow-brown forms of the slain. 



The chase tails itself out for many miles, and may be followed 

 over desolate leagues marked by lines of dead guanacos and dropped 

 boleadores which have failed to carry home. I should be afraid to 

 say how many animals are killed at one of these singular battues. 

 To see the Indian hunt the ofuanaco is to see the art of rousfh- 

 riding exemplified. How they gallop ! Down one sheer barranca, 

 or cliff, and up another. The roar of- loosened stone behind them. 

 The guanaco jink and dodge and break back, always making for 

 the highest ground in the vicinity. 



The dexterity with which the horses of the hunters keep their 

 feet is truly wonderful. They will go at full gallop anywhere, and 

 hardly ever fall or miss their footing. There is, however, one 

 thing which they universally dislike, and that is jumping in any of 

 its forms. Here and there in some parts of Patagonia the pampa 

 is cut and scored with fissures a few feet in width. To have your 

 horse stop dead, both feet together, on the edge of one of these 

 and violently shy away at an acute angle is no uncommon ex- 

 perience. Generally, however, a certain amount of inducement 

 and coercion at length takes them over in a complicated buck. 



When the chase has run itself out, the lean dogs are fed upon 

 the grosser parts, the pelts of the young are pulled off, and the 

 meat, such of it as is wanted, is cargoed or packed upon the horses, 

 and the hunting-party jogs back to the shelter of the wigwams, 

 made from the skins their fathers and their grandfathers slew before 

 the white men began to move southward and to overrun the land. 



The Indians kill no bird save the ostrich, and this is a curious 



