LIFE IN PATAGONIA 97 



wonderful senses. One instance of his keen-sight- 

 edness which I heard struck me as very curious. 

 In 1861 Sosa had found it prudent to disappear 

 for a season from the colony, and in the company 

 of five or six more gauchos also offenders against 

 the law, who had flown to the refuge of the des- 

 ert he amused himself by hunting ostriches along 

 the Rio Colorado. On the 12th of March the hunt- 

 ers were camping beside a grove of willows in 

 the valley, and about nine o'clock that evening, 

 while seated round the fire roasting their ostrich 

 meat, Sosa suddenly sprang to his feet and held 

 his open hand high above his head for some mo- 

 ments. l ' There is not a breath of wind blowing, ' ' 

 he exclaimed, "yet the leaves of the trees are 

 trembling. What can this portend 1 ' ' The others 

 stared at the trees, but could see no motion, and 

 began to laugh and jeer at him. Presently he sat 

 down again, remarking that the trembling had 

 ceased; but during the rest of the evening he 

 seemed very much disturbed in his mind. He re- 

 marked repeatedly that such a thing had never 

 happened in his experience before, for, he said, he 

 could feel a breath of wind before the leaves felt 

 it, and there had been no wind; he feared that it 

 was a warning of some disaster about to overtake 

 their party. The disaster was not for them. On 

 that evening, when Sosa sprang up terrified and 

 pointed to the leaves which to the others appeared 

 motionless, occurred the earthquake which de- 

 stroyed the distant city of Mendoza, crushing 



