The herald., 1895-12-01
A California Man Says He
Made Big Money in
Chile
HOW CONDORS HUNT GAME
Are in Turn Hunted, and Strange to Say,
Lassoed.. Must Be Well Fed First.
It's Great Fun II the Lariat
Doesn't Break

to Los Angeles the other day, after an
absence of fifteen years from California.
He went away a poor boy from San Fran
cisco and is now paying taxes on some
million dollars's worth of property in
Caliao. Peru, and Valparaiso and other
cities in Chile.
''I got my start toward fortune" said
he yesterday 10 group OF old-hme
friends in the lobby OF the Nadsau hotel,
when pressed to tell how lie had pros
pered in South America, "by lassooing
condors. That may seem q very strange
occupation for money. msking, but 1t was
not so uncommon down in Chile and
Peru. You sec 1 had lived as boy SO
long among the plainsmen in Kansas
and Nevada that l became expert with
the lariat and on u horse. Before l was
16 could lasso norses aud cattle with
the best mah in Nevada. When l went
down to Chile there had been boom OF
several years because of the newly-dis-
covered gold and silver mines and the
nitrate deposits, so everybody felt rich.
The Chilean government, at the sugges-
ton OF Megs, offerad a bounty of S. for
every condor killed in the republic. You
see the birds had become such nuisance
voured tens of thousands Of dollars
worth of food everv year, and attacked
herds of sheep ana even calves and colts
in tLeir ferocty for carcass to prey
upon.
well. the Chileans felt so prosperous
that, with their natural lndolencs, they
did not care to avail themselves OF the
opportunities to make money by Staying
the condors, for the vocation requires
hard work and many physical risks. l
had not been down in Chile week when
. saw the chance to make more money
than | had ever before dreamed OF pos
sessing BY lassoing and killing the man.
moth birds. Thera we're three OF us
Yankees in Valparaiso, and we declnea
to go into thu condor killing business.
Ths next day. mounted on horses tnat
Meigs bought for us, AUD armed win
GUNS and lariats, We started out to hunt
condors among the foothills and caLuns
and crags of the Andes. We went over
300 miles out among the Cattlemen and
sheep herdcrs. For few days we had
instructions from Jew Chileans IN the
most experienced methods OF capturing
the enormous and savage birds.
'In a few weeks we YANKEES nau
learned every detail OF hunting condots
and our native ingenuity had aoaeu 10
the experience of the Chileans. For
. months ! got from ten to twenty condor
heads every day. and each one in oTr
party did half as well AS that. My early
training on the plains in Kansas and
Nebraska was n,y stock in trade. Every
month during the years OF 1871 ano lo'z
and 1873 got warrants on the chilean
treasury for from 500 to $500. one
month when had forwarded ZIG dried
condor heads to the comptroller of Cnile,
ana had sworn that no fraud bad been
committed, got warrant for $loso.
That wac the red letter month il my
condor lassoing days. was remote from
civilization, and so could not spend my
money if desired. ] have never saved
money as did then, before or s,hce.
1.-The birds used to be found in hocks
of seventy and eighty in the grazing
countries OF the lower Andes il central
Chile Like otner members Ut the yulture
family, they search everywhere Ior car
casses upon which to feed. They have
wonderfully keen eyes, and 1 have proved
to myself that condor can see dead
~nimai ten and even fifteen miles away.
/ have made experiments where cundors
haze been iuIed over eight miles from
mountain cIag above the snow line by
the bait of bleeding goat in the wiley.
The condor differs from other me m.
bcrs Of the vulturs family, in that 1t
doesn't walt for something or sonnet BODY
to die in order that il may have ITS din
ner. If it doesn't End a ready-ma'e car
cass convenient on the plain when 1t is
hungry, it proceeds to provide q carcass
for itself. Tue herds of CATTLE that pas
tured on the undulating plains between
the impenetrable wall OF the Andes and
the Paoific's whitecresteo line OF surf
offered ths condor unrivaled facilities
in its liue in those days. and as 1t seemed
TO be in a state OF chronic hunger, this
king of the feathered race levied constant
tribute on tho grazing herds.
"Twenty-iive years ago it was no un-
IA n
winged 1reebooters lowering over the
plains each one a ravenous and deter
mined dinner-ro bier from the herds be-
low, to which the shadow OF a condor's
wings carried as much terror as the APP
pearance OF a hawk does to brood OF
chickens. The condor was the greatest
enemy the stock-ra sers in that part of
South America had to contend with. and
it was his persist' mt and destructive
raids on grazing cattle t.at made him
an outlaw with price OH his head.
Glow did we CAPTURE thesF ferocious
birds? Our first job evcrv morning, De.
fore thers was even peep of sunlight
over the mountains, was to carry the car
cass OF a dead animal, horse or cow,
out on the plain where it could be easily
seen from all points of the compass. We
sometimes made u carcass do service for
fortnight. We moved about every few
days from one locality to another, and
n,vcr put the rotting body twice in the
p,con Of the average condor. Generally
we would move three or four miles every
twenty-four hours Sometimes when we
were not doing SO we'll as we thought we
should do, we would move ten III lies
away in another valley.
GA we had placed our bait carcass,
ws set up our tents and canvas flies that
concealed us and our horses from view
by the condOrs. Breakfast was often no
sooner over than we could see from our
peep holes in the canvas that hid us sew
eIal coniors coming down through the
. clouds from the mountain cresIs straight
toward our bait. We waited patiently
un:il q dozen or more OF the birds had
eaten heartily of the meal we had pro-
vided for them, and then we sprang to
our horses, which stood near, bridled and
saddled ready for the chase. In a second
we were eff, lariats in hand, after the
oOndors.
1T should be said here that when a
condor has gorged itself with food it can
not rise for fright except after long run.
ming to give itself the necessary mo-
mentun. 1t can get over the ground,
howrevr, ny fast as a dog. Our method
was tn follow the birds for half a mile
or more. and then as they rose for flight
to throw our lariats over their heads. An
expert lassoer could send his rope over
rodor's head and so MANAGE il that IL
slipped down until it touched the Shout