SHUMWAY'S FALL 55 



supper, but before breakfast a cat sneaked around and 

 ate its head off, ruining the skin. These southern flamin- 

 goes are seen about every pond and along the seashores 

 where it is at all sandy. As they rise showing the bright 

 pink and salmon of their wings, they make a very welcome 

 addition to the scenery, where a bit of bright color is so 

 conspicuous. 



All the next day the mud and ruts in the long up-hill 

 trail held us back, so that instead of making the Estancia 

 Marciege, we were overtaken by darkness and had to 

 camp beside a shallow mud puddle in the road; which, 

 however, gave the horses enough sweet water for a drink, 

 and to us the basis for tea. 



Just before noon on the following morning we came in 

 sight of the estancia, and as we came up to the gate, the 

 wind suddenly took Turner's hat and blew it into Paddy's 

 face. This was too much for Paddy, and he jumped so 

 high and quickly that he threw his rider, Shumway, whose 

 foot was caught in the stirrup, so that he was dragged. 

 Fortunately the sole of his shoe came free from the upper, 

 and freed him after twenty-five or thirty yards, but the 

 experience shook and bruised him a good bit, and scared 

 the rest of us thoroughly. No serious harm having re- 

 sulted, we went on to the house, which proved to be the 

 headquarters of a large German ranch. They cordially 

 invited us to stop for dinner, the good cheer and wealth 

 of which renewed our youth greatly. Upon our proposing 

 to start along, our host insisted that "it was intirely against 

 the custom of the country to travel on Sunday." It was 

 not hard to convince us, and we gave the rest of the day 

 to the enjoyment of seeing a well-planned sheep ranch. 

 There were some thirty leagues inside of a "ten-wire" 

 fence which effectually kept the sheep in and the guanacos 

 out. Yet they estimated that there were still i,ooo gua- 

 nacos inside the fence. The previous year, they had tried 

 offering a bounty for their extermination, a peso (40 cents) 



