118 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



of all such aspects of nature and extraordinary 

 phenomena, snow is perhaps the most impressive, 

 and is certainly one of the most widely known on 

 the earth, and most intimately associated in the 

 mind with the yearly suspension of nature's be- 

 neficent activity, and all that this means to the 

 human family the failure of food and consequent 

 want, and the suffering and danger from intense 

 cold. This traditional knowledge of an inclement 

 period in nature only serves to intensify the ani- 

 mism that finds a given purpose in all natural phe- 

 nomena, and sees in the whiteness of earth the 

 sign of a great unwelcome change. Change not 

 death, since nature's life is eternal; but its sweet 

 friendly warmth and softness have died out of it ; 

 there is no longer any recognition, any bond; 

 and if we were to fall down and perish by the 

 wayside, there would be no compassion: it is sit- 

 ting apart and solitary, cold and repelling, its 

 breath suspended, in a trance of grief or passion ; 

 and although it sees us it is as though it saw us 

 not, even as we see pebbles and withered leaves 

 on the ground, when some great sorrow has dazed 

 us, or when some deadly purpose is in our heart. 

 Just as with regard to snow the animistic feel- 

 ing is strongest in those who inhabit regions 

 where winter is severe, and who annually see this 

 change in nature, so the "muffled rollings of a 

 milky sea" will strike more of panic to the sailor's 

 soul than to that of the landsman. Melville re- 

 lates an anecdote of an old sailor who swooned 



