THE NATURALIST IN LA PLATA. 
CHAPTER I. 
THE DESERT PAMPAS, 
Dorine recent years we have heard much about the 
great and rapid changes now going on in the plants 
and animals of all the temperate regions of the 
globe colonized by Kuropeans. These changes, if 
taken merely as evidence of material progress, must 
be a matter of rejoicing to those who are satisfied, 
and more than satisfied, with our system of civiliza- 
tion, or method of outwitting Nature by the removal 
of all checks on the undue increase of our own 
species. ‘To one who finds a charm in things as 
they exist im the unconquered provinces of Nature’s 
dominions, and who, not being over-anxious to reach 
the end of his journey, is content to perform it on 
horseback, or in a waggon drawn by bullocks, it is 
permissible to lament the altered aspect of the 
earth’s surface, together with the disappearance of 
numberless noble and beautiful forms, both of the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. For he cannot 
find it in his heart to love the forms by which they 
are replaced ; these are cultivated and domesticated, 
and have only become useful to man at the cost of 
