STEPPES AND DESERTS. 19 



all the organs of animals and plants — that which flashing 

 amid the roar of thunder illuminates the wide canopy of 

 heaven — which binds iron to iron, and directs the silent re- 

 curring course of the magnetic needle — all, like the varied 

 hues of the refracted ray of light, flow from one common 

 source, and all blend together into one eternal all-pervading 

 power. 



I might here close my bold attempt of delineating the 

 natural picture of the Steppe; but, as on the ocean, fancy 

 delights in dwelling on the recollections of distant shores, so 

 will we, ere the vast plain vanishes from our view, cast a rapid 

 glance over the regions by which the Steppe is bounded. 



The northern desert of Africa separates two races of men 

 which originally belonged to the same portion of the globe, 

 and whose inextinguishable feuds appear as old as the myth of 

 Osiris and Typhon (44). To the north of Mount Atlas there 

 dwells a race characterised by long and straight hair, a sallow 

 complexion, and Caucasian features; while to the south of 

 Senegal, in the direction of Soudan, we find hordes of Negroes 

 occupying various grades in the scale of civilization. In 

 Central Asia the Mongolian Steppe divides Siberian barbarism 

 from the ancient civilization of the peninsula of Hindostan. 



In like manner, the South American Steppes are the boun- 

 daries of a European semi- civilization (45). To the north, 

 between the mountain chain of Venezuela and the Caribbean 

 Sea, lie, crowded together, industrial cities, clean and neat 

 villages, and carefully tilled fields. Even a taste for arts, 

 scientific culture, and a noble love of civil freedom, have long 

 since been awakened within these regions. 



To the south, a drear and savage wilderness bounds the 

 Steppe. Forests, the growth of thousands of years, in one 

 impenetrable thicket, overspread the marshy region between 

 the rivers Orinoco and Amazon. Huge masses of lead- 

 coloured granite (46) contract the beds of the foaming rivers. 

 Mountains and forests re-echo with the thunder of rushing 



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