PLAINS. 



PLANET. 



860 



varieties of palms. The Corypha tectorum, or Palma de Cobija, solitary 

 or in clumps, rises here and there as a landmark through these track- 

 less plains. It is chiefly found in the llanos of Caracas from Mesa de 

 Peja, as far as Guayaval. Farther north and north-west, near Guavare 

 and San Carlos, its plice is taken by another species of the same 

 genus. Other palm-trees appear to the south of Guayaval, especially 

 the Pirilu, with pinnate leaves, and the Muriclti, whose beautiful 

 verdure, at the period of the greatest drought, contrasts with the 

 mournful aspect of the grey and dusty leaves of the cobija. Two or 

 three other species of trees besides palms are also found in the llanos, 

 and it is round these clumps that the llanos are the most fertile. 



The great wealth of the llanos consists in the numerous herds 

 which they feed. The first horned cattle were let loose in these exten- 

 tive pastures by Christoval Rodriguez, about the year 1548, since 

 which time they have increased to almost countless numbers. About 

 98,000 head of cattle are said to wander in the pastures round Calaboza. 

 But, according to M. Depons, there are, from the mouths of the 

 Orinoco to the lake of Maracaybo, 1,200,000 oxen, 180,000 horses, and 

 90,000 mules, the annual produce of which herds is estimated at about 

 5,000,000 francs. But these estimates were made many years since, 

 and are scarcely applicable to the present time. 



All the parts of the llanos are not equally favourable for the breed- 

 ing of mules and oxen ; but in some of those places, where the herds 

 are less numerous, the pastures are so fertile as to furnish meat of an 

 excellent quality for provisioning the coast. 



The horses of the llanos are not very large, but are descended from 

 a fine Spanish breed. Deer are natives of these plains. 



The greatest curiosity of the llauos are the gymnoti, or electrical 

 eels, which live in the pools as well as in the rivers of this part of 

 South America. 



We may also mention, as distinguishing the llanos from the 

 pampas, and from the plains of North America, the Sahara, and 

 ' the steppes of Asia, the total absence of any formation of chloride of 

 sodium or common salt. 



Pampas, from an Indian word, which, in the Quichua language, 

 signifies properly a flat, is the name given to extensive plains in the 

 southern and central parts of South America. Those which lie to the 

 south and north-west of Buenos Ayres are called, the former the 

 Pampas of Buenos Ayres, or simply the Pampas, and the latter the 

 Pampas of Cordova. The plains to the south of the province of 

 Chiquitoe bear the name of the Pampas de Uuanacos. There is also 

 one more to the north, between the river Beni and the river Mannore, 

 a tributary of the Madeira ; and lastly, to the north between 

 Huallaga and the Ucayal there is another, called the Pampas del 

 Sacramento. 



The Pampas of Buenos Ayres are bordered on the west by the 

 forests which lie along the base of the Andes of Chile ; on the east by 

 the Atlantic ; on the south by the Rio Negro and Patagonia, the 

 interior of which, though little known, seems to be of the same nature 

 with the pampa itself; and on the north-east by the Rio de la 

 Plata. In the direction due north the pampa narrow* between the 

 Parana and a ridge coming from the Andes, called the Sierra.de 

 Cordova. 



This region, reckoning to the foot of the mountains on the west, 

 occupies a surface of about 315,000 square miles. This plain has no 

 general slope, or rather it slopes so gently towards the east, that the 

 slightest inequalities, together with the absorbing nature of the soil 

 and the great evaporation, are sufficient to arrest the course of the 

 waters ; so that, with the exception of the rivers Colorado and Negro, 

 which come from the Cordilleras, and which traverse the southern part 

 of the pampas, and the Salado, a small stream which flows into the 

 Hi" de la Pitta at its mouth, the pampas have no running waters, but, 

 instead of them, a great many shallow pools, of which the water is 

 often brackish. There is one at about 450 miles from Buenos Ayres, 

 in the direction west-south-west, always filled with salt, from which 

 the city of Buenos Ayres was yearly supplied before the port was 

 thrown open to foreigners. The southern part of the pampas is sandy, 

 with patches of saline plants and stunted trees ; the northern parts are 

 cuvcp d with grass, supplying food to Urge herds of cattle and wild 

 , tin; liescendanU of those first introduced by the Spaniards. It 

 baa been said that several million head of cattle and about half as 

 many horses f wxl on the pampas of Buenos Ayres. There are also wild 

 bcMU. 



This plain is traversed by a road which leads from Buenos Ayres to 

 Chile, along which the traveller meets with huts, which form stations, 

 distant from each other about seven or eight leagues. The journey 

 may be made on horseback or in a carriage, but it is sometimes 

 dangerous, on account of the Indians. 



The pampa of Cordova extends from tho right bank of the lower 



irana to the Sierra de Cordova at the west. On the north it joins 



Parana 



the sandy plains or trauma of Santiago del Estero. 



This pam|K resembles that already described in all things, excepting 

 being traversed by a greater number of streams. All these streams, 

 however, with the exception of thu Rio Salado, which falls into the 

 Parana, lose themselves in the sands, or end in marshes and lakes 

 without issue, and which in the country are called Layunai. Such is 

 particularly the case with the Rio Dulce, which, rising in a fertile valley 

 on the eastern slope of one of the lateral chains of the Andes, passes 



by S. Miguel de Tucuman and Santiago, and finally empties itself into 

 the Lagunas de las Porongos ; the same is also the case with the Rio 

 Primero, on which is situated Cordova, the best of all the towns of 

 Tucuman, and where the Jesuits had formerly a celebrated university. 



Throughout the whole of the country between the Parana and the 

 mountains to the west, from Chaco on the north to the extreme 

 southern extremity of the Pampa of Buenos Ayres, there is neither 

 river, lake, nor well that is not brackish, saline, or alkaline. Even the 

 Pilcomayo and the Vermejo partake of this saltness ; and Azara assures 

 us that he has seen in laguuas, dried up by the heat, a layer of Epsom 

 salts above three inches in thickness. Nitron, sulphate of soda, and 

 glauberite also occur in the laguuas. 



The inhabitants of the fertile valleys lying to the west and north of 

 the plains of Tucuman, similar in some respects to Little Bucharia, 

 rich in their flocks, without ambition, and without care, close the day 

 in rural amusements worthy of being sung by Theocritus and Virgil. 

 It is nevertheless true that there are spaces of many square leagues 

 in extent condemned to absolute sterility. The traveller may pass for 

 days together over sands and stones, between which there spring up 

 here and there some saline plants, without meeting with any other 

 objects than a few isolated huts on the borders of some brackish 

 stream ; these barren districts are generally designated by the term 

 trai-fsia. 



Pampa of Huanacos. Leaving the pampa of Cordova on the south, 

 and travelling through forests swarming with bees, which extend 

 beyond the Kio Dulce and the Salado, we enter on the territory of the 

 Abipones, a race of very warlike Indians ; after which, crossing the 

 Rio Vermejo, we gain the plains of the Gran Chaco, occupied by more 

 or less savage indigenous tribes. This region is traversed by the Rio 

 Pilcomayo, which, passing near the mines of Potosi, falls into the 

 Paraguay below the city of Assumption. To the north lies the Pampa 

 de Huanacos, adjoining the province of Chiquitos, bounded on the east 

 by the great laguna of Xarayes, through which passes the frontier of 

 Brazil ; on the west by the heights of Santa Cruz de Sierra, and on the 

 north by the forests of the province of Moxos and the sandy plateau 

 called Campos Parexis. 



Pampa de Mvxos is on the north of the province of Moxos, between 

 the rivers Beni and Mai-more" ; and between the junction of this latter 

 and the Guapore, another source of the Madeira, are other pampas of 

 considerable extent. 



Pampa del Sacramento. This pampa is situated on the north-west 

 of Cuzco. It differs from the other pampas in having a more tropical 

 vegetation, and in its soil not being saline. It occupies a surface of 

 from 54,000 to 63,000 square miles. 



Such are the principal pampas of South America; and, if we include 

 a part of Patagonia as being of the same nature with the pampas, we 

 shall have, without reckoning the pampas of Moxos and Sacramento, 

 and a number of spots of similar character but less extent, an almost 

 uninterrupted band, extending from the Campos Parexis, in latitude 

 15 S.,to.the bay of St. George in 45', or about '2800 geographical miles 

 long and 300 wide, or a surface of 840,000 square miles of plain, partly 

 sand, and partly marshy and saline, and producing hardly anything but 

 pasture and a few stunted trees. Humboldt estimates the whole of 

 the pampas of Rio de la Plata and Patagonia at 135,200 square leagues 

 of 20 to the degree. 



The Seivax, or forest-covered plain of the Marauon. Independent of 

 the vast forests which cover gnat part of the plains of North America, 

 particularly on the east of the Mississippi, there is the immense plain 

 of the Maranon in South America, extending over a surface of 2,340,000 

 square miles, of which about 719,000 are covered with primeval forests, 

 the rest of the space being occupied by the waters, and by open patches 

 of a character similar to the llanos and savannas, though little known. 

 \Ve merely mention this region here as one of the most extensive con- 

 tinuous plains hi the world. 



If the great plains wu have described owe their peculiar character to 

 climate and situation, a very little reflection will suffice to show the 

 immense influence which they in their turn must exercise over the 

 climate of the regions contiguous to them, and the great modifications 

 they must effect on mere solar temperature. Indeed the curves of 

 the isothermal lines sufficiently prove that the several climates of the 

 earth depend on the joint action of solar radiation, and the magni- 

 tude, distribution, conformation, soil, and productions of the solid 

 parts of the globe, and the extent and relative position of the great 

 bodies of water by which they are surrounded. Nor have the vast 

 plains of Asia and America performed a less important part in the 

 moral history of mankind, whether as having favoured or opposed tho 

 emigrations of nations and the progress of civilisation. 



PLAN. This word (which is the same as Plane) means a represen- 

 tation of a plane section of any building, country, &c. Usually it is to 

 the horizontal section that the term is applied, the words section or 

 elevation being used to signify the vertical plans. A map is not 

 properly a plan, but a PROJECTION, unless the country represented be 

 perfectly level : nevertheless the term is commonly applied to maps of 

 vi i y small portions of a country, as an estate or a town. 



PLANK, PLANE-ANGLE. [STHAIUIIT LINK AND PLANE.] 



PLANE, I.NCLKNKU. [I.NCI.INKD PLANE.] 



PLANE OF POLARIZATION. [POLARIZATION.] 



PLANET (oiri> irAui^j, a wandering star), PLANETARY 



