r INTRODUCTION 25 



without water, without trees, without moun- 

 tains, they support only a few dwarf plants. 

 Why then — and the case is not peculiar to 

 myself — have these arid wastes taken so firm 

 possession of my mind ? Why have not the 

 still more level, the greener and more fertile 

 pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, 

 produced an equal impression ? I can scarcely 

 analyse these feelings, but it must be partly 

 owing to the free scope given to the imagina- 

 tion. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, 

 for they are scarcely practicable, and hence 

 unknown ; they bear the stamp of having thus 

 lasted for ages, and there appears no limit to 

 their duration through future time. If, as 

 the ancients supposed, the flat earth was sur- 

 rounded by an impassable breadth of water, 

 or by deserts heated to an intolerable excess, 

 who would not look at these last boundaries 

 to man's knowledge with deep but ill-de- 

 fined sensations ? " 



Hamerton, whose wide experience and 

 artistic power make his opinion especially 

 important, says : — 



" I know nothing in the visible world that 



