16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
derful population of water-fowl. 'But unhappily,'
he said, 'I know their names only in
Quichua, the language of my people: I have
found no learned descriptions, with Latin
names, genus and species. For example there
is a splendid goose we call huachua which
has dark green wings, merging to violet...'
The plateau broke away in broad sloping terraces
to a stream far below, and here the
country was richer by far, with stretches of a
crop called quinua, a species of chaenopodium,
and fields of barley with dry-stone
walls – stone in great plenty, lying in shattered
heaps – and on the edge of one field a stray
sheep. 'Sheep again,' said Eduardo with disapproval.
Down the stream, far on the right
hand, there was an Indian village, but he
turned to the left, telling Stephen a little anxiously
that although the lofty slope on the
other side looked high it was not really very