United States or Nauru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the expressive vernacular of the gauchos the large dragon-fly is called hijo del pampero son of the south-west wind.
We feel differently disposed, according to whether a south or a north wind blows. When Garibaldi was on the Pampas, he observed that his companions were irascible and prone to violent quarrels, when the Pampero blew, and that their behavior changed, when this wind ceased.
The most common species and in some cases the entire flight seems to be composed of this kind only is the Aeschna bonariensis Raml, the prevailing colour of which is pale blue. But the really wonderful thing about them all alike is, that they appear only when flying before the southwest wind, called pampero the wind that blows from the interior of the pampas.
To this day it gives me a thrill, or perhaps it would be safer to say the ghost of a vanished thrill, when I remember the relief it was in my case, albeit I was never so tied to a horse, so parasitical, as the gaucho, after one of these great thistle-levelling pampero winds.
Then dark clouds are seen in the west; the fierce pampero bursts forth with irresistible force; they bend before it, and in a few seconds the whole forest is levelled with the ground. Here, under the influence of the heat and moisture, they rapidly decompose and disappear, fertilising the soil.
Appearance of a green level land Cardoon and giant thistles Villages of the Vizcacha, a large burrowing rodent Groves and plantations seen like islands on the wide level plains Trees planted by the early colonists Decline of the colonists from an agricultural to a pastoral people Houses as part of the landscape Flesh diet of the gauchos Summer change in the aspect of the plain The water-like mirage The giant thistle and a "thistle year" Fear of fires An incident at a fire The pampero, or south-west wind, and the fall of the thistles Thistle-down and thistle-seed as food for animals A great pampero storm Big hailstones Damage caused by hail Zango, an old horse, killed Zango and his master.
The strange atmospheric phenomena, especially of the tropics, have been christened by the Spaniard and Portuguese, the Corposant, the Pampero, the Tornado, the Hurricane. Then follows a host of words of which the derivation is doubtful, such as sea, mist, foam, scud, rack. Their monosyllabic character may only be the result of that clipping and trimming which words get on shipboard.
Darwin's conjecture that the extreme violence of the pampero, or south-west wind, prevented trees from growing, is now proved to have been ill-founded since the introduction of the Eucalyptus globulus; for this noble tree attains to an extraordinary height on the pampas, and exhibits there a luxuriance of foliage never seen in Australia.
The least spark of fire then suffices to create a mighty blaze, especially if accompanied by the pampero wind, which blows with irresistible force in its sweep over hundreds of miles of level ground. The fire, gathering strength as it goes, drives all before it, or wraps everything in its devouring flames.
We had been a fortnight at sea, cruising; and I have always thought that the captain, who was interested in meteorology and knew the region, kept us out till we should catch a pampero. We caught it, and quite up to sample. I had been on deck at 9 P.M., and the scene then, save for the force of the wind, was nearly the same as that I have just described.
Word Of The Day