* * * * *
CHAPTER XXI.
After our return to Falcon's Nest, I requested my sons to continue their
exercises in gymnastics. I wished to develope all the vigour and energy
that nature had given them; and which, in our situation, were especially
necessary. I added to archery, racing, leaping, wrestling, and climbing
trees, either by the trunks, or by a rope suspended from the branches,
as sailors climb. I next taught them to use the _lasso_, a powerful
weapon, by aid of which the people of South America capture savage
animals. I fixed two balls of lead to the ends of a cord about a fathom
in length. The Patagonians, I told them, used this weapon with wonderful
dexterity. Having no leaden balls, they attach a heavy stone to each end
of a cord about thirty yards long. If they wish to capture an animal,
they hurl one of the stones at it with singular address. By the peculiar
art with which the ball is thrown, the rope makes a turn or two round
the neck of the animal, which remains entangled, without the power of
escaping. In order to show the power of this weapon, I took aim at the
trunk of a tree which they pointed out. My throw was quite successful.
The end of the rope passed two or three times round the trunk of the
tree, and remained firmly fixed to it.
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