HUNTING CAMPS IN 

 WOOD AND WILDERNESS. 



CHAPTER -I, . \ _\ 



THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 



T)ERHAPS the chief charm of Patagonia lies in] its 

 Jl absolute unlikeness to any other land north or south. 

 The plains, rising in vast terraces across the continent 

 from the low coasts on the east to the mountain ranges on 

 the west show grass, on all sides grass as far as the eye can 

 reach. Not green inviting grass, but yellowish, harsh and 

 prickly, which leaves spines sticking into the fingers. All 

 vegetation other than the grass is dwarf, stunted by the 

 unceasing winds which sweep over the open country. 

 Leagues upon leagues of califate thorn, no higher than a 

 man's waist, broken now and again by pebbty patches 

 sparsely set with mate negra, innumerable pools and huge 

 tracts of glacial detritus are all undergrown and overflown 

 and surrounded by this sea of grass. ... It forms a very 

 desolate and forbidding landscape, yet it is one which lays 

 a strong hold on the imagination and the memory ; once 

 you have ridden across those lonely plains, you often feel 

 a desire which sometimes amounts to a craving to go back 

 and ride across them again. The feeling brings to mind 

 the story told in the ancient chronicles of Magellan, who 



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