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plays strange antics, sucli as tlirowing up his feet in the air,
they will almost always approacli by degrees to reconnoitre
him. It was an artifice that was repeatedly practised by
our sportsmen with success, and it had moreover the advantage
of allowing several shots to be fired, which were all taken
as parts of the performance. On the mountains of Tierra del
Fuego, and in other places, I have more than once seen a
guanaco, on being approached, not only neigh and squeal,
but prance and leap about in the most ridiculous manner,
apparently in defiance as a challenge. These animals are very
easily domesticated, and I have seen some thus kept near the
houses, although at large on their native plains. They are
in this state very bold, and readily attack a man, by striking
him from behind with both knees. It is asserted, that the
motive for these attacks is jealousy on account of their females.
The wild guanacoes, however, have no idea of defence;
even a single dog will secure one of these large
animals, till the huntsman can come up. In many of their
habits they are like sheep in a flock. Thus when they see
men approaching in several directions on horseback, they soon
became bewildered, and know not which way to run. This
greatly facilitates the Indian method of hunting, for they are
thus easily driven to a central point, and are encompassed.
The guanacoes readily take to the water: several times at
Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to
island. Byron, in his voyage, says he saw them drinking
salt water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd apparently
drinking the briny fluid from a salina near Cape Blanco. I
imagine in several parts of the country, if they do not drink
salt water, they drink none at all. In the middle of the
day, they frequently roll in the dust, in saucer-shaped hollows.
The males fight together ; two one day passed quite
close to me, squealing and trying to bite each other; and
several were shot with their hides deeply scored. Herds
sometimes appear to set out on exploring-parties: at
Bahia Blanca, where, within thirty miles of the coast,
these animals are extremely unfrequent, I one day saw the
tracks of thirty or forty, which had come in a direct line
to a muddy salt-water creek. They then must have perceived
that they were approaching the sea, for they had
wheeled with the regularity of cavalry, and had returned back
in as straight a line as they had advanced. The guanacoes
have one singular habit, which is to me quite inexplicable;
namely, that on successive days they drop their dung in tlie
same defined heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight
feet in diameter, and necessarily was composed of a large
quantity. Frezier remarks on this habit as common to the
guanaco as well as to the llama ;* he says it is very useful
to the Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved
the trouble of collecting it.
The guanacoes appear to have favourite spots for dying in.
On the banks of the St. Cruz, the ground was actually white
with bones, in certain circumscribed spaces, which were
generally bushy and all near the river. On one such spot
I counted between ten and twenty heads. I particularly
examined the bones; they did not appear, as some scattered
ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged
together by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases,
must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst the
bushes. Mr. Bynoe informs me that during the last voyage,
he observed the same circumstance on the banks of the Bio
Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of this, but
I may observe, that the wounded guanacoes at the St. Cruz,
invariably walked towards the river. At St. Jago in the
Cape de Verd islands I remember having seen in a retired
ravine a corner under a cliff, where numerous goats’
bones were collected: we at the time exclaimed, that it was
the burial-ground of all the goats in the island. I mention
these trifling circumstances, because in certain cases they
might explain the occurrence of a number of uninjured bones
in a cave, or buried under alluvial accumulations; and likewise
the cause, why certain mammalia are more commonly
embedded than others in sedimentary deposits. Any great,
J
* D ’Orb ig n y says (v o l. ii., p . G9) th a t a ll th e sp ecies o f th e g e n u s iiav
th is h a b it.