Then we all separated: Captain Dunlop to join his ship; Tom to
complete his report on the colonies of the Central Argentine Land
Company, which he is preparing in compliance with the request of the
Directors in London; while the rest of the party awaited the arrival
of the waggonette which was to take us to the estancia of Las Rosas.
_Wednesday, September 20th_.--At 6.30 a.m. the waggonette arrived, a
light but strong, unpainted vehicle, drawn by a pair of active little
well-bred horses, both of whom had been raced in their day. There were
but a few leagues of cultivated ground to be passed before we reached
the broad, undulating, solitary Pampas, where for some time the only
visible signs of life were to be found in the Teru-tero birds (a sort
of plover), who shrieked discordantly as we disturbed their repose;
the partridges, large and small, put up by the retriever who
accompanied us; some prairie fowls; a great many hawks, of all sizes;
and the pretty little wydah-birds, with their two immense tail
feathers, four times the length of their bodies. The first glimpse of
the far-spreading prairie was most striking in all its variations of
colour. The true shade of the Pampas grass, when long, is a light
dusty green; when short it is a bright fresh green. But it frequently
happens that, owing to the numerous prairie-fires, either accidental
or intentional, nothing is to be seen but a vast expanse of black
charred ground, here and there relieved by a few patches of vivid
green, where the grass is once more springing up under the influence
of the rain.
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