242 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



that no further approach of the deer was Hkely, I finally got up and 

 went my way. The does followed me for fifty yards or so, the 

 buck remaining stationary, and then all four bounded off into the 

 woods whence they had come. 



In spite of this original confidingness exhibited by the huemul 

 to man when unknown, he appears to be readily rendered wild and 

 timid. Burbury saw some of these animals near the Engineers' 

 camp above Lake Buenos Aires. They had probably been hunted 

 by Mr. Waag's party and were excessively wild, flying on the 

 farthest glimpse of man. This observation was confirmed by 

 Humphrey Jones, who told me that the huemules living in the 

 woods near the Welsh colonv of The i6th October are wilder than 

 any other creature, and that to shoot one is a feather in the caps 

 of the local hunters. I cannot say whether they are easily tamed 

 when in captivity, for I came across no instance of a huemul kept 

 by man. 



So far, then, my observations on the huemul. 



Concerning the puma, I have never heard of any man being 

 attacked near the settlements by this animal, and, indeed, authentic 

 instances of its acting as the assailant are very few and far 

 between. All those of which I gathered reliable evidence 

 occurred in remote places, distant from the beat of man. Mr. 

 Waag told me of a puma which did not retreat from his party 

 in the Cordillera, but gave manifest signs of anger and a readiness 

 to attack. Another case is that of Dr. Francisco P. Moreno, 

 who, upon the banks of the River Leona, a river which flows 

 between Lake Aroentmo and Lake Viedma, and is seldom 

 visited, was attacked by a puma. He was, he informs me, 

 walking wrapped in the skin of a guanaco, and he fancies the 

 animal may have mistaken him for a guanaco. It sprang upon 

 his shoulders and tore him under the chin with its claws, but was 

 luckily beaten off by his companion and killed. This puma was 

 found to be in milk, a fact which, arguing the presence of her 

 young near at hand, probably accounted for the unusual outbreak 

 of fierceness. The young were searched for but not discovered. 



A third instance is that^of Mr. Arenberg, one of the Argentine 

 Boundary Commissioners, who was mauled by a puma in the 



