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 sufferings 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 frequent 
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 in all its 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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