The Plains of Patagonia. 



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others were ridge-like and stretched away in league- 

 long terraces, with other terraces beyond ; and all 

 alike were clothed in the grey everlasting thorny 

 vegetation. How grey it all was ! hardly less so 

 near at hand than on the haze-wrapped horizon, 

 where the hills were dim and the outline blurred by 

 distance. Sometimes I would see the large eagle- 



The Plains of Patagonia. 



like, white-breasted buzzard, Buteo erythronotus, 

 perched on the summit of a bush half a mile away ; 

 and so long as it would continue stationed motionless 

 before me my eyes would remain involuntarily fixed 

 on it, just as one keeps his eyes on a bright light 

 shining in the gloom ; for the whiteness of the hawk 

 seemed to exercise a fascinating power on the 

 vision, so surpassingly bright was it by contrast in 



