THE PLAINS OF PATAGONIA 221 



free to receive an impression of visible nature as 

 a whole. One gazes on the prospect as on the sea, 

 for it stretches away sea-like, without change, into 

 infinitude; but without the sparkle of water, the 

 changes of hue which shadows and sunlight and 

 nearness and distance give, and motion of waves 

 and white flash of foam. It has a look of an- 

 tiquity, of desolation, of eternal peace, of a desert 

 that has been a desert from of old and will con- 

 tinue a desert for ever ; and we know that its only 

 human inhabitants are a few wandering savages, 

 who live by hunting as their progenitors have 

 done for thousands of years. Again, in fertile 

 savannahs and pampas there may appear no signs 

 of human occupancy, but the traveler knows that 

 eventually the advancing tide of humanity will 

 come with its flocks and herds, and the ancient 

 silence and desolation will be no more; and this 

 thought is like human companionship, and miti- 

 gates the effect of nature's wildness on the 

 spirit. In Patagonia no such thought or dream 

 of the approaching changes to be wrought by hu- 

 man agency can affect the mind. There is no 

 water there, the arid soil is sand and gravel peb- 

 bles rounded by the action of ancient seas, before 

 Europe was ; and nothing grows except the barren 

 things that nature loves thorns, and a few woody 

 herbs, and scattered tufts of wiry bitter grass. 

 Doubtless we are not all affected in solitude by 

 wild nature in the same degree ; even in the Pata- 

 gonian wastes many would probably experience no 



