THE NATUEALIST IN LA PLATA. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DESERT PAMPAS. 



DCJRING 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 Europeans. 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 in 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 



