Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

280 SLAUGHTER OF CATTLK. April lowing in impotent rage, and two cows were held tightly by lassoes — one being caught by Simon alone, and the other by his two companions. One of the men jumped off, and fastened his cow's legs together so securely, that she could only limp along a few inches at a time ; his horse meanwhile keeping the second lasso tight, as effectually as if his master had been on his back. Both lassoes were then shaken off, and one thrown over Simon''s cow, which had been trying in all kinds of ways to escape from or gore her active enemy, who — go which way she would — always kept the lasso tight ; and often, by check- ing her suddenly, half overset and thoroughly frightened her. Leaving his horse as soon as the cow was secure, Simon ham- strung the bulls, and left them where they fell, roaring with pain and rage. He then remounted, and all four cantered back towards the ' estancia' (or farm), where the tame cattle are kept. Simon was asked to kill the poor brutes before he left them; but he shook his head, with a sneer, and remarked, that their hides would come off easier next day ! At daybreak, the following morning, half-a-dozen tame cattle were driven out to the place of slaughter, and with them the frightened and ah'eady half-tamed cows (which had been left tied in a place where they had nothing to eat), were easily driven in to the farm. The two bulls were at last killed, skinned, cut up, and the best parts of their cai'cases carried to the settlement. The hides of those two animals weighed seventy-three and eighty-one pounds. Speaking to Simon myself one day about the indiscriminate slaughter of cattle which I had heard took place occasionally, he told me that the gauchos used sometimes to kill them for their tongues only, and, perhaps, a steak or two, for ' asado' (meat roasted on a stick), without taking the trouble to skin them ; being too great epicures in their way to feast twice upon the same animal. In 1834, while surveying the sea-coast of these islands, in the Adventure, Lieutenant Wickham, Mr. Low, and Mr. Johnson had many a bull hunt ; but though there was as much or more risk in their encounters, being on foot, with