THE PAMPAS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



rising or setting." Yet amongst the grasses are hundreds of 

 flowers, and, a fact which is very remarkable, many of them, 

 such as Fennel, Artichoke, Milk Thistle, Burdock, Rye Grass, 

 etc., are European plants which have dispossessed the natives 

 over miles of country, exactly as the gaucho has driven away 

 or exterminated the Indians who lived there. It is covered 

 by tufts of grass betwixt which appears the rich alluvial 

 earth, yet in good years it may become almost a perfect 

 grass floor. "The colour changes greatly, for in spring 

 when the old grass is burnt off, it is coal-black, which 

 changes to a bright blue-green as soon as the young leaves 

 appear; later on it becomes brownish green, which again 

 changes when the silver-white flowers come out to the 

 appearance of a rolling, waving sea of shining silver." 



Here would be the place to mention how an army en- 

 camped upon the Pampas finds itself next morning im- 

 prisoned and doomed to perish miserably in a forest of giant 

 thistles which has sprung up during the night. There is no 

 doubt that thistles and other weeds are very tall in both 

 South and North America. Fennels are ten to twelve feet 

 high, and even little Chenopodiums (such as in England may 

 reach eighteen inches), become in South America seven to 

 eight feet high, but the tallness of some of the stories is 

 more remarkable even than that of the plants ! 



Over the Pampas used to roam thousands of guanacos (a 

 creature of the most unlovely type, which resembles both a 

 camel, a mule, a deer, and a horse) ; here also were Darwin's 

 ostriches {Rhea Darwinii) and other game, which were 

 caught by the lasso and by the peculiar "bolas" of the 

 Indians. They used to surround the herds and then mas- 

 sacre them by hundreds. The " tuco tuco " also, which is a 

 burrowing rodent with habits very like those of the prairie 



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