"Another kind of bolas consists of three balls united by thongs to a common centre; they are more difficult to handle than the other sort, and are chiefly used for hunting the guanaco and ostrich on the plains in the southern part of the republic, and in Patagonia. Fred and I tried to use the bolas, the ordinary kind, but we found that it went generally in the opposite direction from what we intended. One of the guachos showed us how to do it, and set us to trying to 'bolear' a stake driven in the ground ten yards away. We didn't hit the stake a single time, but we should assuredly have brought each other down if we had not stood at safe distances apart. When a novice is practising, the guachos require that he shall be far out of any possibility of reaching them by a stray shot.
"'Now see how I'll do it,' said one of the guachos, as he started in pursuit of a steer that was escaping from the herd.
"While the animal was at full gallop the bolas went twining around his hind-legs, bringing him to a dead halt, but without injuring him in the least. The guacho repeated the performance two or three times in succession, and showed that he was thoroughly skilled in the use of the weapon, which he launched with terrible swiftness and unerring accuracy.
"The hunters in Patagonia generally carry no other weapons than the lasso and the bolas in their pursuit of the guanaco and ostrich. Wild horses are tripped up with the bolas and then secured with the lasso, and sometimes the leaden ball, hitting a horse fairly on the forehead, will bring him to the ground as lifeless as though shot through the heart.
"When the repairs to the engines were completed a gun was fired by the steamer, and we galloped back to the landing. We steamed on until late in the evening, passing alternate stretches of forest and open ground, and on two or three occasions feeling the sand-bars with our keel. This mode of sounding was not to the liking of the captain and pilot, and so we anchored until morning.
"For the first two hundred miles of its course as we ascend it the Parana is a labyrinth of islands and channels; they are so numerous as to bewilder the novice, and even the old pilots say they are often perplexed by the multiplicity of ways open to them. The islands are covered with fruit trees, from which the markets of Buenos Ayres and Montevideo are supplied, and they overhang the water so that in some places a boat may be loaded without its occupant stepping on shore. The forests are gay with flowers in bloom, the air is filled with fragrance, little pools and nooks in the islands are covered with aquatic plants, and the luxuriance of vegetation is so great that we were continually reminded of the lower Amazon.
"If only the mosquitoes had let us alone we should have found the journey one of the most interesting we have ever made.
"The country is rapidly filling up with inhabitants, who come from all parts of Europe, as already mentioned, but there is yet an immense area that awaits settlement. We ask for the Indians, but have difficulty in finding them; at various times they have had quarrels with the settlers, but soon found it was better to remain on terms of peace. As the country has been occupied with farms and cattle-ranches, they have found a scarcity of game which has led them to retire into the interior. They are rarely seen on the lower part of the river, except where they have hired out as herdsmen to the owners of the cattle estates, the only kind of labor they are willing to engage in.
