76 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



that brand upon his flank. The first geese we came upon were a 

 party of five standing upon an island in the Mayo. As it was 

 impossible to stalk these birds we tried driving, and I sent 

 Humphrey Jones, who, by the way, was a very keen sportsman, to 

 attempt to drive them over me, where I had taken up my 

 quarters in some bushes upstream above them on the bank. 

 Jones meantime made a large circle and galloped up towards 

 them. When he was within about 200 yards they rose, and 

 honking indignantly made straight up in my direction, flying, 

 however, a little too wide. They went down again about a 

 quarter of a mile away, and we repeated our tactics, I remaining 

 where I was. I could not help thinking how much time was 

 saved by Jones being on horseback. Had he been on foot it 

 would have taken him a long time in that bare valley to fetch 

 a circle big enough. As it was, in five minutes the birds were 

 again on the wing, and this time they gave me a chance and I 

 brought down two ; one, however, falling on the other side of the 

 river, had to be abandoned." 



. Any one who travels through Patagonia cannot fail to be struck 

 by the enormous quantities of upland geese {Chloepkaga magel- 

 lanica) which abound in the vicinity of the rivers and lagoons. At 

 this time a great many of the birds are paired, but at a latter date 

 in the valley of the Coyly we once made a camp round which the 

 country in all directions was covered by thousands of these geese. 

 After our shot Jones rejoined me and we proceeded to the edge of 

 a small lagoon, where he told me he had seen some ducks. On 

 approaching it I examined the birds through my telescope and 

 discovered them to be brown pintails {Dafila spinicaudd). I held 

 the horses while Jones enjoyed the stalk, which ended in his 

 killing two of the birds, to retrieve which it was necessary to wade 

 into pretty deep water. 



We now rode towards the valley of the Genguel, and there 

 flushed innumerable snipe, at which we did not shoot, as we could 

 not afford to waste ammunition on so small a bird. We next 

 descried a flock of nineteen geese, which were peculiarly wideawake 

 and would not allow us to approach for a long time, and presently 

 we deserted their pursuit in favour of that of a single old gander 



