From custom one expects to see in the neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country strewed over with huge fragments.

Here Nature shows that the last movement before the bed of the sea is changed into dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity.

Under these circumstances I was curious to observe how far from the parent rock any pebbles could be found.

On the shores of Bahia Blanca, and near the settlement, there were some of quartz, which certainly must have come from this source: the distance is forty-five miles.
The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the saddle-cloths under which we slept, was in the morning frozen.

The plain, though appearing horizontal, had insensibly sloped up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet above the sea.