114 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



ever an enemy went down before him it would 

 seem that a supernatural energy nerved his arm, 

 that the gods were fighting on his side. So great 

 is the effect of mere conspicuousness ! Any white 

 savage beast would, because of its whiteness, or 

 conspicuousness, seem more dangerous than an- 

 other; and a Chillingham bull, no doubt, inspires 

 more fear in a person exposed to attack than a 

 red or black bull. On the other hand, sheep and 

 lambs, although their washed fleeces look whiter 

 than snow, are regarded as indifferently as rab- 

 bits and fawns, and their whiteness is nothing 

 to us. 



Something more remains to be said about white- 

 ness in animals, which must come later. It will be 

 more in order to speak first of the whiteness of 

 snow, and the whiteness of a seething ocean. We 

 are all capable of experiencing something of that 

 feeling, so powerfully described by Melville, at 

 the sight of the muffled rollings of a milky sea, 

 and white mountains, and the desolate shiftings of 

 windrowed snows on vast stretches of level earth. 

 But doubtless in many the feeling would be slight ; 

 there is an "illusive something" in us when we 

 behold the earth suddenly whitened with snow; 

 but the feeling does not last, and is speedily for- 

 gotten, or else set down as an effect of mere nov- 

 elty. In Melville it was very strong; it stirred 

 him deeply, and caused him to ponder with awe 

 on its meaning; and the conclusion he came to 

 was that it is an instinct in us an instinct simi- 



