SOME HUNTING CAMPS 159 



before described, until at length we crossed the river and rode in 

 among the trees towards Rest-and-be-thankful Camp. 



That was one of the most picturesque camps which fell to our 

 lot in Patagonia. The grass there, though coarse, was very good ; 

 deep green scrub and incensio bushes bounded it on three sides, 

 the barranca leading up to the tableland being on the fourth. 

 As we were riding through the trees we discovered the three 

 horses, led by Fritz the Zaino, descending the barrancas to water. 

 Truly our snakes were standing upright, as the Zulus say. Of 

 course, immediately the horses under General Fritz perceived us, 

 they stood still. Before that they were coming down the steep 

 side of the cliff with the grace and swing of wild things, now they 

 at once pretended that it was a very difficult business. We caught 

 them, and found them to be in excellent condition, glossy, bright- 

 eyed and fat. We at once put them upon sogas, lest their love of 

 liberty might have been increased by the week-end they had spent 

 alone. They were evidently in the habit of drinking each evening 

 and feeding in the rich grass of the Gorge, and in the morning 

 ascending to the tableland and enjoying themselves there. 



After settling the camp, Jones and I saddled up Luna and 

 General Fritz and went up to look for a guanaco. We found that 

 the fire lit by Barckhausen and myself had burned over a largish 

 area and driven the game backwards into the higher basaltic 

 hills. Among these, and upon the western river, the Jeinemeni, 

 we had a most lovely evening. Fresh horses, keen air, a soft 

 wind out of the west, and the most glorious of views — the lake, 

 placid for once, in its gigantic setting of peaked and pinnacled 

 Cordillera, the tint of yellow marshes in the lowland, and the whole 

 background of the picture painted with mist and distance in a 

 dozen shades of dusky and far-off blue. 



In the course of that day's wanderings we first reached the 

 Jeinemeni, the more westerly river, which shut in the farther side 

 of the tableland. The ravine through which it flowed down to the 

 lake was magnificent, a wonderful vista of broken white cliffs. 

 The conformation of its canadon was very different to that of the 

 de los Antiguos. Seen from a distance the valley appeared 

 almost treeless, and upon its west bank rose the lower hills of the 



