CHAPTER XIII. 
THE PLAINS OF PATAGONIA. 
Near the end of Darwin’s famous narrative of the 
voyage of the Beagle there is a passage which, for 
me, has a very special interest and significance. It 
is as follows, and the italicization is mine:—“ In 
calling up images of the past, I find the plains of 
Patagonia frequently cross before my eyes; yet 
these plains are pronounced by all to be most 
wretched and useless. They are characterized only 
by negative possessions ; without habitations, with- 
out water, without trees, without mountains, 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 
analyze these feelings, but it must be partly owing 
to the free scope given to the imagination. The 
plains of Patagonia are boundless, for they are 
searcely 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 
