SOUTHWARD HO! 



31 



hollow, and, as we rode through this, I told my companions to 

 ride on and threw them my cabresto (leading--r6pe of a horse). I 

 slid off the horse and crawled up the hill. Upon the bare face of 

 it was a thicket of poison-bush, and into this 1 ultimately made my 

 way. The sentinel guanaco was there above me, stretching out 

 his long neck, and every now and 

 then giving his high neighing 

 laugh. When one hundred and 

 twenty yards off he saw me, and 

 I had to snap him quickly. Swing- 

 went his neck, and away he gal- 

 loped with his swift, uneven gait. 

 I thought I had missed him, 

 whfen, to my delight, he began 

 to slacken speed, and finally lay 

 down in an ungainly attitude, his 

 long neck crooked in a curve in 

 front of him. I crawled nearer, 

 and up he got and was off again. 

 I ran down to my horse and 



mounted, and Macdonald let Tom, my hound, loose. We galloped 

 the guanaco up. He was very sick indeed, and inside of three 

 hundred yards Tom pulled him down again. The Mauser bullet 

 had hit him two inches behind the shoulder about half way down 

 the body. It had not come out. How he managed to get so 

 far I cannot understand. We then went onwards, and saw by the 

 way several herds of guanaco. I did not shoot any more, 

 however, as they were uncommonly tame, and there was, of 

 course, mutton at the estancia. We reached the spot on the 

 hills above the puma's kill, low thorn bushes, vast mountain and 

 blue sea, but no sign of the puma was to be found. These 

 animals will often travel four or five leagues after a kill. 



By the way, when you fire at a guanaco they will sway their 

 heads downwards with an odd sort of ducking motion. Not one 

 individual but a whole herd will do this at any unaccustomed 

 sound. The effect is most curious. 



While at Bahia Camerones our party was completed. We 



FREDERICK BARCKHAUSEN 



