194 THROUGH THE HEART OK PATAGONIA 



This river would have been, I should say, impassable at an earlier 

 date in the season. 



Our advance was finally stopped by cliffs which descended 

 clear to the water's edge. We camped on the shingle at the foot 

 of the cliffs just short of the spot where their bases plunged under 

 the level of the water, and all night long we could hear the rushing 

 thunder of masses of ice breaking from the parent glaciers and 

 crashing down into the fjord. 



The weather now completely broke up. Rain fell in close 

 steady lines all across our outlook over the western fjord, and the 

 drenched forests behind us tossed and creaked in the wind. 

 Nothing more dismal and depressing can be imagined than this 

 forest-land dim with lowering skies and a downpour of rain. 

 For four days the heavy rain, sometimes mixed with sleet, 

 continued to fall, and throuoh it we rode back to the Burmeister 

 Peninsula. 



It was upon the shores of Lake Argentino that a great Gaucho, 

 perhaps I should say the greatest of all Cxauchos, one Ascensio 

 Brunei, at one time found a hiding-place. We visited the spot 

 later on, but here I may as well tell some part of the story of his 

 life. He was very generally known for many years as the "Wild 

 Man of Santa Cruz," and his history was an extraordinary one — 

 one of those smears of high and vivid colour which circumstance 

 occasionally paints in upon the dull humdrum picture of the daily 

 life of a district. 



Let us set out his antecedents. 



He and his brother were Gauchos. They lived in camp, and 

 were partners in a small business. Cattle, sheep, and horses 

 formed their stock. 



Once they went together on a long journey, and became 

 acquainted with a lady, whom we will call Bathsheba. They both 

 loved her ; yet she was another's. 



The two brothers descended upon that other and slew him. 

 Then they made off with the lady to the wilder districts. There 

 they quarrelled about her. Ascensio waited until his brother hap- 

 pened to be away tracking horses in a particularly wild part, and 

 then he rounded up the remainder of the stock, and he and the 



