ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
sheds. Where the land was not yet under cultivation — 
quite a lot of it — low scrub and stunted trees far apart 
dotted the landscape. 
As the express dashed through villages, goats stam¬ 
peded in all directions; sleepy women and men looked at 
the train half dazed, as it went by, and children, with 
quite a characteristic gesture, screened their eyes with 
their elbows to protect them from the dust and wind the 
train produced. I was astonished to notice how many 
fair-haired children one saw, curious indeed in a popula¬ 
tion of Latin races and negroes. That golden hair, 
however, semed gradually to grow darker, and became 
almost black in the older people. 
Hideous barbed-wire fences gave a certain air of 
civilization to those parts, but the landscape was never¬ 
theless getting desolate as we proceeded farther north. 
Except in the immediate vicinity of habitations, one felt 
the absolute lack of animal life. Only rarely did we see 
a black bird of extraordinary elongated form dash 
frightened across the railway line, much too fast for me 
to identify to which family it belonged. 
One could not help being impressed by the immensity 
of the landscape; endless sweeping undulation after 
undulation spread before us, but not a real mountain was 
in sight. It was like a solid ocean of magnified propor¬ 
tions. Just above the horizon-line a large accumulation 
of globular clouds immaculately white intensified the 
interesting colour-scheme of greens and yellows on the 
earth’s surface to its full value by contrast. 
The large proportion of cultivated land which had 
impressed me so much in the vicinity of Riberao Preto 
gradually diminished; and at sunset, by the time we had 
reached Butataes, only 48 kilometres farther on, hardly 
any more coffee plantations were visible. Only fields of 
short grass spread before us on all sides. An occasional 
bunch of trees, hiding a humble farmhouse, could be 
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