The Desert Pampas. 29 
the world contains; though doubtless there are 
many persons who are devoted to art, but blind to 
some things greater than art, who will set me down 
as a Philistine for sayingso. And, above all others, 
we should protect and hold sacred those types, 
Nature’s masterpieces, which are first singled out 
for destruction on account of their size, or splendour, 
or rarity, and that false detestable glory which is 
accorded to their most successful slayers. In 
ancient times the spirit of life shone brightest in 
these ; and when others that shared the earth with 
them were taken by death they were left, being 
more worthy of perpetuation. Like immortal 
flowers they have drifted down to us on the ocean of 
time, and their strangeness and beauty bring to our 
imaginations a dream and a picture of that unknown 
world, immeasurably far removed, where man was 
not: and when they perish, something of gladness 
goes out from nature, and the sunshine loses some- 
thing of its brightness. Nor does their loss affect 
us and our times only. The species now being 
exterminated, not only in South America but every- 
where on the globe, are, so far as we know, un- 
touched by decadence. They are links in a chain, 
and branches on the tree of life, with their roots in 
a past inconceivably remote ; and but for our action 
they would continue to flourish, reaching outward 
to an equally distant future, blossoming into higher 
and more beautiful forms, and gladdening innumer- 
able generations of our descendants. But we think 
nothing of all this: we must give full scope to our 
passion for taking life, though by so doing we “ ruin 
the great work of time ;’’ not in the sense in which 
