224 To the River Plate and Back 



diana, although I missed the mountains and the hills, 

 among which I had passed my earlier years, I neverthe- 

 less derived great pleasure from rambling through the 

 fields. So it was also here in this flattest of all flat 

 lands, the Province of Buenos Aires. The sky in level 

 countries, as boundless as that which lifts its vault 

 over the ocean, possesses a charm which partly compen- 

 sates for the lack of variety due to the absence of broken 

 or rugged surfaces. Though so broad, the sky over 

 prairie-lands always seems to possess a different quality 

 from the sky above the sea, whether because of reflec- 

 tions from the surface or the presence of minute par- 

 ticles of dust in the lower regions of the air. This 

 difference is noticeable at the coast, where in looking in 

 one direction the observer sees the sky above the water, 

 and in the other the sky above the land. This differ- 

 ence is most plainly discernible just above the horizon- 

 line. The vegetation of flat lands always differs from 

 that of hilly countries, and in consequence foregrounds 

 as well as backgrounds vary in the two cases. Not 

 only from the standpoint of the artist, who sees the 

 surface of things, and notes forms and colors, but also 

 from that of the naturalist there is much of interest to 

 be observed in level countries. Such lands generally 

 are fertile, and even if there be no great variety, there 

 is luxuriance and richness of color in their vegetable 

 growths. There are no lusher greens than those of the 

 New Jersey flats or of the pasture-lands of Zeeland in 

 early summer. And so it was in the environs of La 

 Plata. The pampas 'arrayed in living green,' over 

 which was bent the blue dome of the sky, proved 

 attractive enough to me to invite me to repeat on several 

 occasions the first stroll which I had taken into el 

 campo. At such times I found it most agreeable to 



