French Scientific Mission to the Pampa dei Sacramento. 121 
plains of the Caraccas, or the Lower Oroonoko; the plains 
of the Amazon and the Rio Negro; and the plains of Buenos 
Ayres or the La Plata. Ido not use the word valley, be- 
cause the Lower Oroonoko and the Amazon, far from flow- 
ing in a valley, form but.a slight furrow in a vast plain. The 
two basins placed at the extremities of South America are 
savannahs or steppes, pasturage without trees; the inter- 
mediate basin which receives the equatorial rains during the 
whole year, is almost throughout one vast forest, in which 
the rivers form the only roads. The same vigorous vegeta- 
tion that conceals the soil, renders the uniformity of its level 
less perceptible; and the plains of Caraccas and La Plata 
alone bear this name. The three basins just described are 
called by the colonists the Lianos of Varinas and Caraccas, 
the bosques or selvas (forests) of the Amazon, and the Pam- 
pas of Buenos Ayres. As the region of forests comprises at 
once the plains and the mountains, it extends from 18° south 
to 7° and 8° north, and stretches over nearly 120,000 square 
leagues. This forest of South America,—for in fact it is only 
one,—is six times larger than France.” 
Let it not be supposed, however, that this vast forest, in 
comparison with which those of Europe sink into perfect insig- 
nificance, even in its wild state, produces no better food for 
man than the acorns and chestnuts of our climate. Be it re- 
membered, that so large a part of the human family live on 
the produce of different sorts of the palm-tree ; that man has 
been not inappropriately called a palmivorous animal. Now, 
the great traveller we have quoted speaks of ninety different 
species of the palm, all adapted for human support, and all 
to be found in this region! Nor are they the only trees in 
that huge territory that provide abundant and nutritious food 
for our race, and to such trees must be added the various 
edible roots, and the fish that teem in the rivers, all contri- 
buting to the supply of a population which might be im- 
mensely multiplied without having to dread starvation, unless 
from the improvidence and idleness of savage life. 
It is true that the Selva, though so abounding in food for 
man, is at present so unhealthy, that even the Indians scat- 
tered over it are said seldom to live beyond fifty: but they 
