216 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



so until a glimpse of nature's wildness, a taste 

 of adventure, an accident, suddenly makes it seem 

 unspeakably irksome; and in that state we feel 

 that our loss in departing from nature exceeds 

 our gain. 



It was elation of this kind, the feeling experi- 

 enced on going back to a mental condition we 

 have outgrown, which I had in the Patagonian 

 solitude; for I had undoubtedly gone back; and 

 that state of intense watchfulness, or alertness 

 rather, with suspension of the higher intellectual 

 faculties, represented the mental state of the pure 

 savage. He thinks little, reasons little, having a 

 surer guide in his instinct; he is in perfect har- 

 mony with nature, and is nearly on a level, men- 

 tally, with the wild animals he preys on, and 

 which in their turn sometimes prey on him. If 

 the plains of Patagonia affect a person in this 

 way, even in a much less degree than in my case, 

 it is not strange that they impress themselves so 

 vividly on the mind, and remain fresh in memory, 

 and return frequently; while other scenery, how- 

 ever grand or beautiful, fades gradually away, 

 and is at last forgotten. To a slight, in most 

 cases probably a very slight, extent, all natural 

 sights and sounds affect us in the same way ; but 

 the effect is often transitory, and is gone with 

 the first shock of pleasure, to be followed in some 

 cases by a profound and mysterious melancholy. 

 The greenness of earth ; forest and river and hill ; 

 the blue haze and distant horizon; shadows of 



