THE PAMPAS. 



199 



we discovered some hills in the horizon. After 

 the ocean of land we had been traversing, 

 this sight was indeed delightful. Though they 

 were, in reality, but a low range of hills, they 

 appeared, to our enchanted eyes, like lofty 

 mountains, worthy of being the footstools of the 

 giant Andes. We were, indeed, nearly four 

 hundred miles from the base of the Andes ; but 

 we had already reached them in imagination, 

 and were climbing up their steep sides. The 

 chain which we beheld is called the Sierra of 

 Cordova, by which name the province passes ; 

 and though very far from the Andes, they seem 

 to be the last effort of those mighty masses, to 

 disturb the surface of a plain which rivals in 

 flatness the ocean, to which it extends over vast 

 regions of the new world : for, though here and 

 there we had met with gentle elevations, these 

 are only to be distinguished on a near approach, 



