8 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



some time, as they stood gazing away over the plain 

 in different directions, motionless and silent, like 

 bronze men on strange horse-shaped pedestals of 

 dark stone ; so dark in their copper skins and long 

 black hair, against the far-off ethereal sky, flushed 

 with amber light ; and at their feet, and all around, 

 the cloud of white and faintly-blushing plumes. 

 That farewell scene was printed very vividly on my 

 memory, but cannot be shown to another, nor could 

 it be even if a Ruskin's pen or a Turner's pencil 

 were mine ; for the flight of the sea-mew is not 

 more impossible to us than the power to picture 

 forth the image of Nature in our souls, when she 

 reveals herself in one of those " special moments " 

 which have " special grace " in situations where 

 her wild beauty has never been spoiled by man. 



At other hours and seasons the general aspect of 

 the plain is monotonous, and in spite of the un- 

 obstructed view, and the unfailing verdure and 

 sunshine, somewhat melancholy, although never 

 sombre : and doubtless the depressed and melan- 

 choly feeling the pampa inspires in those who are 

 unfamiliar with it is due in a great measure to the 

 paucity of life, and to the profound silence. The 

 wind, as may well be imagined on that extensive 

 level area, is seldom at rest ; there, as in the forest, 

 it is a "bard of many breathings," and the strings 

 it breathes upon give out an endless variety of 

 sorrowful sounds, from the sharp fitful sibilations 

 of the dry wiry grasses on the barren places, to the 

 long mysterious moans that swell and die in the tall 

 polished rushes of the marsh. It is also curious to 

 note that with a few exceptions the resident birds 



