180 THE SAl'ANNA OF ARIPO. 



bare in the fifteeiitli century tluin tliey are now ; yet tlie first 

 Conquistadores, wlio came from Coro, described them then as 

 Savannas, where nothing could be perceived save the sky and 

 the turf; which were generally destitute of trees, and difficult 

 to traverse on account of the reverberation of heat from the 

 soil. Why does not the great forest of the Oroonoco extend 

 to the north, or the left bank of that river ? Why does it 

 not fill that vast space that reaches as far as the Cordillera of 

 the coast, and which is fertilized by ^'arious rivers ? This 

 question is connected Avith all that relates to the history of 

 our planet. If, indulging in geological reveries, we suppose 

 that the Steppes of America and the desert of Sahara have 

 been strij^ped of their vegetation by an irruption of the 

 ocean, or that they formed the bottom of an inland 

 lake " (the Sahara, as is now well known, is the quite 

 recently elevated bed of a great sea continuous with the 

 Atlantic) " we may conceive that thousands of years have 

 not sufficed for tlie trees and shrubs to advance toward the 

 centre from the borders of the forests, from the skirts of the 

 plains either naked or covered with turf, and darken so vast 

 a space with their shade. It is more difficult to explain the 

 origin of bare savannas enclosed in forests, than to recognize 

 the causes which maintain forests and savannas within their 

 ancient limits like continents and seas." 



With these words in my mind, I could not but look on the 



