The Plains of Patagonia. 209 



Yet, in spite of accurate knowledge, the old charm 

 still exists in all its freshness ; and after all the 

 discomforts and sufferinofs endured in a desert cursed 

 with eternal barrenness, the returned traveller finds 

 in after years that it still keeps its hold on him, that 

 it shines brighter in memory, and is dearer to him 

 than any other region he may have visited. 



We know that the more deeply our feelings are 

 moved by any scene the more vivid and lasting will 

 its image be in memory — a fact which accounts for 

 the comparatively unfading character of the images 

 that date back to the period of childhood, when we 

 are most emotional. Judging from my own case, 

 I believe that we have here the secret of the per- 

 sistence of Patagonian images, and their fretpient 

 recurrence in the minds of many who have visited 

 that grey, monotonous, and, in one sense, eminently 

 uninteresting region. It is not the effect of the 

 unknown, it is not imagination ; it is that nature in 

 these desolate scenes, for a reason to be guessed at 

 by-and-by, moves us more deeply than in others. 

 In describing his rambles in one of the most deso- 

 late spots in Patagonia, Darwin remarks : " Yet, in 

 passing over these scenes, without one bright object 

 near, an ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is 

 vividly excited." When I recall a Patagonian scene, 

 it comes before me so complete inallits vast extent, 

 with all its details so clearly outlined, that, if I were 

 actually gazing on it, I could scarcely see it more 

 distinctly; yet other scenes, even those that were 

 beautiful and sublime, with forest, and ocean, and 



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