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 belt of poison-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 gave 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 

 {F. c. puma, locally called lions). We encamped beneath a high cliff, 

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



THE HUNTER S RETURN 



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



