The Plains of Patagonia. 213 
others were ridge-like and stretched away in league- 
long terraces, with other terraces beyond; and all 
alike were clothed in the grey everlasting thorny 
vegetation. How grey it all was! hardly less so 
near at hand than on the haze-wrapped horizon, 
where the hills were dim and the outline blurred by 
distance. Sometimes I would see the large eagle- 
The Plains of Patagonia. 
like, white-breasted buzzard, Buteo erythronotus, 
perched on the summit of a bush half a mile away ; 
and so long as it would continue stationed motionless 
before me my eyes would remain involuntarily fixed 
on it, just as one keeps his eyes on a bright light 
shining in the gloom; for the whiteness of the hawk 
seemed to exercise a fascinating power on the 
vision, so surpassingly bright was it by contrast in 
