196 Ldle Days in Patagonia. 
strange unique loveliness. Again in that exquisite 
type of female beauty which we see in the white 
girl with a slight infusion of negro blood, giving the 
graceful frizzle to the hair, the purple-red hue to 
the lips, and the delicate dusky terra-cotta tinge to 
the skin, an eye more suitable than the dark dull 
brown would have been the intense orange-brown 
seen in some lemur’s eyes. For many very dark- 
skinned tribes nothing more beautiful than the ruby- 
red iris could be imagined; while sea-green eyes 
would have best suited dusky-pale Polynesians and 
languid peaceful tribes like the one described in 
Tennyson’s poem :— 
And round about the keel with faces pale, 
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame, 
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came. 
Since we cannot have the eyes we should like 
best to have, let us consider those that Nature 
has given us. The incomparable beauty of the 
“emerald eye” has been greatly praised by the 
poets, particularly by those of Spain. Emerald 
eyes, if they only existed, would certainly be 
beautiful beyond all others, especially if set off 
with dark or black hair and that dim pensive 
creamy pallor of the skin frequently seen in warm 
climates, and which is more beautiful than the rosy 
complexion prevalent in northern regions, though 
not so lasting. But either they do not exist or 
else I have been very unfortunate, for after long 
seeking I am compelled to confess that never yet 
