"They held him firmly on the earth, and then the branding-iron, which had been heated to redness, was applied to his hide, and held there with such force that it burned in deeply. The bellowing of the poor brute was unheeded; when the iron was removed he was allowed to rise and gallop off to his companions, and he lost no time in doing so. Then the iron was returned to the fire and made ready for the next victim, and so the operation went on with great rapidity. The mark of the brand is indelible not only while the animal lives, but after his hide has passed through the hands of the tanner. [Illustration: USE OF THE LASSO AND BOLAS.] "Another weapon of the vaquero is the _bolas_, which consists of two balls joined by a leather thong six or eight feet in length; they are usually round stones, or balls of iron or lead, and in either case are covered with leather, which is attached to the thong. They are swung round the head until they attain great velocity, and then hurled at the animal; they twist around his legs, and bring him to the ground, or, at all events, hamper his speed so that he can be overtaken. "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.