The Plains of Patagonia. 227 



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 antiquity, of desolation, of eternal peace, of 

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

 continue 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 traveller knows that eventually 

 the advancing tide of humanity will come with its 

 flocks and herds, and the ancient silence and desola- 

 tion will be no more; and this thought is like 

 human companionship, and mitigates the effect of 

 nature's wildness on the spirit. In Patagonia no 

 such thought or dream of the approaching changes 

 to be wrought by human agency can affect the mind. 

 There is no water there, the arid soil is sand and 

 gravel pebbles 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 

 such mental change as I have described. Others 

 have their instincts nearer to the surface, and are 

 moved deeply by nature in any solitary place ; and I 



Q 2 



