35^ 'The N'aturalist in La Plata. 
abounding in the place, and where no man could 
follow. I have not space to tell more about this 
horse; but at last, in the fulness of time, when the 
figs were ripe — literally as well as figuratively, for 
it happened in the autumn of the year — the long 
tyrannous rule ended, and Santa Anna came out of 
the reed-beds, where he had lived his wild-animal life, 
to mix with his fellows. I knew him some years 
later. He was a rather heavy-looking man, with 
little to say, and his reputation for honesty was not 
good in the place ; but I dare say there was some- 
thing good in him. 
Students of nature are familiar with the modifying 
effects of new conditions on man and brute. Take, 
for example, the gaucho: he must every day traverse 
vast distances, see quickly, judge rapidly, be ready 
at all times to encounter hunger and fatigue, violent 
changes of temperature, great and sudden perils. 
These conditions have made him differ widely from 
the peasant of the Peninsula ; he has the endurance 
and keen sight of a wolf, is fertile in expedients, 
quick in action, values human life not at all, and is 
in pain or defeat a Stoic. Unquestionably the horse 
he rides has also suffered a great change. He differs 
as much from the English hunter, for instance, as 
one animal can well differ from another of the same 
species. He never pounds the earth and wastes his 
energies in vain parade. He has not the dauntless 
courage that performs such brilliant feats in the 
field, and that often as not attempts the impossible. 
In the chase he husbands all his strength, carrying 
his head low, and almost grazing the ground with 
his hoofs, so that he is not a showy animal. Con 
