12 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



pools, and covered with vast herds of cattle, horses, and 

 flocks of sheep. 



I cannot conceive anything more exhilarating than a 

 gallop across the plains of Buenos Ayres on a bright, 

 clear morning, or in the cool of the afternoon or evening ; 

 a cloudless sky of deep azure, an atmosphere light and 

 pure in the extreme, communicating a sense of in- 

 describable buoyancy and pleasurable existence a soft 

 breeze flowing, as it were, over the vast plain, boundless 

 as an ocean, contributes to engender an irresistible feeling 

 of joyous freedom. 



One of the effects of the climacteric influences on resi- 

 dents in the plain is to render them comparatively inde- 

 pendent of what in England are called comforts ; men 

 seem to revel in mere existence ; life is pleasurable to 

 them for itself, and this frequently renders them careless 

 of accessories and prone to take things easily, often too 

 much so. It being easy to live, and wants few, there is a 

 disposition to eschew exertion. The sense of the expanse 

 doubtless contributes to this ; there is no obstacle, all is 

 open and wide ; resistance stimulates to exertion, some- 

 thing to grapple with ; something within reach is needed 

 to excite action and develop energy. When the plain 

 fades away in the far distance, and the long vista presents 

 no objects but such as are insignificant in relation to the 

 expanse, a consciousness of impotence is engendered, 

 reacting to produce a disinclination to effort. Who has 

 not stood on a rock overhanging the sea, and looked forth 

 on the wide surface, and not felt something of this ? In 

 the plain there is a similarity of cause and effect. 



In the ' campo,' the horse is man's companion and re- 

 source, the one thing that leads him to motion, which 

 carries him through space and shortens it. No one is a-foot 

 in the plain ; from comparative infancy to old age, every 



