1 76 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



t'hat when seen far off, in its low down, dilatory, 

 rising and falling flight, it simulates the appearance 

 of a horseman in full gallop. To know this and a 

 few other things was his vocation. If one had set 

 him to find a reversed little ' s ' in the middle of a 

 closely-printed page the tears would have run down 

 his brown cheeks, and he would have abandoned 

 the vain quest with aching eyeballs. Yet the proof- 

 reader can find the reversed little c s' in a few 

 moments, without straining his sight. But it is 

 infinitely more important to the savage of the 

 plains than to us to see distant moving objects 

 quickly and guess their nature correctly. His 

 daily food, the recovery of his lost animals, and 

 his personal safety depend on it ; and it is not, 

 therefore, strange that every blot of dark colour, 

 every moving and motionless object on the horizon, 

 tells its story better to him than to a stranger; 

 especially when we consider how small a variety of 

 objects he is called on to see and judge of in the 

 level monotonous region he inhabits. 



This quick judging of dimly seen distant things, 

 the eye and mind-achievement of the mounted bar- 

 barian on the unobstructed plains, is not nearly so 

 admirable as that of his fellow-savage in subtropical- 

 regions overspread with dense vegetation, with 

 animal life in great abundance and variety, and 

 where half the attention must be given to species 

 dangerous to man, often very small in size. In some 

 hot humid forest districts, the European who should 

 attempt to hunt or explore with bare feet and legs 



