Ill 
THROWING THE BO LAS 
47 
the greatest distance. The main difficulty in using either lazo 
or bolas is to ride so well as to be able at full speed, and while 
suddenly turning about, to whirl them so steadily round the 
head, as to take aim : on foot any person would soon learn the 
art. One day, as I was amusing myself by galloping and 
whirling the balls round my head, by accident the free one 
struck a bush ; and its revolving motion being thus destroyed, 
it immediately fell to the ground, and like magic caught one 
hind leg of my horse ; the other ball was then jerked out of 
my hand, and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old 
practised animal, and knew what it meant; otherwise he would 
probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. The 
Gauchos roared with laughter; they cried out that they had 
seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a 
man caught by himself. 
During the two succeeding days, I reached the farthest 
point which I was anxious to examine. The country wore the 
same aspect, till at last the fine green turf became more weari¬ 
some than a dusty turnpike road. We everywhere saw great 
numbers of partridges (Nothura major). These birds do not 
go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves like the English 
kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on horseback by 
riding round and round in a circle, or rather in a spire, so as to 
approach closer each time, may knock on the head as many 
as he pleases. The more common method is to catch them 
with a running noose, or little lazo, made of the stem of an 
ostrich’s feather, fastened to the end of a long stick. A boy 
on a quiet old horse will frequently thus catch thirty or forty 
in a day. In Arctic North America 1 the Indians catch the 
Varying Hare by walking spirally round and round it, when 
on its form : the middle of the day is reckoned the best time, 
when the sun is high, and the shadow of the hunter not very 
long. 
On our return to Maldonado, we followed rather a different 
line of road. Near Pan de Azucar, a landmark well known to 
all those who have sailed up the Plata, I stayed a day at the 
house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. Early in the morning 
we ascended the Sierra de las Animas. By the aid of the 
rising sun the scenery was almost picturesque. To the west- 
1 Hearne’s Journey, p. 383. 
