It was during this part of our day’s journey that the peons made two captures of live animals in an armadillo and a nutria.  These men have extraordinary good and far sight, and observe any movement in the grass, yards ahead of them.  They at once killed both animals, for they are exceedingly fond of armadillo flesh, and cook the animal in its skin.

It was decided that horses and drivers alike would require a rest when we reached the shores of the lake, and, after our cocheros had made futile attempts to cut figures of 8 with their respective four and two-in-hands on the invitingly firm, yellow sands which surround Lake Palmar, all dismounted, horses were taken out, and, while lunch was being prepared, the party wandered on the shores of the lake trying to find remnants of extinct monsters, fossilised palms, and other improbable things.  The Instigator rushed up and down picking leaves to bits, collecting sand and examining it under the microscope (which is, as yet, his), tasting the water of the lake, and generally trying to find a way of teaching Nature how to improve on her own handiwork.  It really seems a pity She does not engage him as her expert consulting engineer.  My Lady and The Saint did discover a boar-hound’s tooth on the sands, and two teeth of a nutria, very pretty in their long, gentle curve, white at the root and gradually deepening to a reddish-brown at the end; but both these finds were absolutely valueless, and, though there was talk of having the teeth set as brooches, etc., connoisseurs, such as The Wild Man, knew well that the “finds” would be dissolved to dust long before they could reach the civilisation of a jeweller’s shop.

The tiny banks which slope down from the camp to meet the wide stretching sands of the lake are covered with scrub and low trees of the acacia type, and, on one of these low trees, eked out with camp stools, the party, wearied with their search for curios, settled down to await their mid-day meal.  It was gently broken to us that the sheep had at last been sacrificed, and would shortly appear before us in a different guise.  The slaughter must have been most humane, for no one of us had heard the slightest cry or sound of distress, and now the flesh was being cooked.  The peons would always prefer to cook all meat in the hide, if they were allowed to do so, and it is only with constant watching that they are prevented from thus wasting the valuable skins of animals.  They are enormous meat eaters, which is scarcely to be wondered at, considering how scarce green food is.  They live on meat, mate, and hard biscuits.

The bright idea occurred to someone that a hors-d’oeuvre would be acceptable, considering how long ago we had had our meagre early morning meal, so the only available article, a tinned Dutch cheese, was attacked; and none but those who have tried, under similar circumstances, one of the soft Dutch cheeses which one obtains in the Argentine, would be able to understand how very good it can be.  As it was handed round (to everyone on the same knife), hunger, open-air, and the exercise of the ant-hills caused it to be appreciated more than usual, even beyond its deserts, if possible.