VALLEYS AND GREAT LEVELS OF THE EARTH. 233 



exclusive property, and for her unfettered operations. The plain of the Amazon is, 

 perhaps, destined to remain for ever a wilderness." 



South of the forest-covered plain of the Amazon, we come to the third great level of 

 South America the region of the Pampas, an Indian word signifying a flat, given to 

 districts which are true steppes plains rich in grass, but without trees. They extend in 

 an almost uninterrupted band from latitude 15 south to 45, or about 1800 geographical 

 miles, by a width varying from 300 to 900 ; and while at one extremity we find the palm, 

 at the other, where the ground is extremely low, it is covered with perpetual ice. Sir 

 Francis Head describes the pampas, stretching from Buenos Ayres to the Andes, as a vast 

 plain, divided into regions of different climate and produce. The first of these regions is 

 covered with clover and thistles ; the second region produces long grass ; and the third 

 region, which reaches the base of the Cordillera, is a grove of low trees and shrubs. The 

 second and third of these regions exhibit nearly the same appearance throughout the 

 year. The trees and shrubs are evergreens, and the immense plain of grass only changes 

 its colour from gi-een to brown. But the first region varies with the four seasons of the 

 year in a most extraordinary manner. In winter the leaves of the thistles are large and 

 luxuriant, and the whole surface of the country has the rough appearance of a turnip-field. 

 The clover in this season is extremely rich and strong ; and the sight of the wild cattle 

 grazing in full liberty on such pasture is very beautiful. In spring the clover has vanished, 

 the leaves of the thistles have extended along the ground, and the country still looks like 

 a rough crop of turnips. In less than a month the change is most extraordinary ; the 

 whole region becomes a luxuriant wood of enormous thistles, which have suddenly shot 

 up to a height of ten or eleven feet, and are all in full bloom. The road or path is hemmed 

 in on both sides ; the view is completely obstructed ; not an animal is to be seen ; and the 

 stems of the thistles are so close to each other, and so strong, that, independently of the 

 prickles with which they are armed, they form an impenetrable barrier. The sudden growth 

 of these plants is quite astonishing ; and though it would be an unusual misfortune in 

 military history, yet it is really possible, that an invading army, unacquainted with this 

 country, might be imprisoned by these thistles before they had time to escape from them. 

 The summer is not over before the scene undergoes another rapid change : the thistles 

 suddenly lose their sap and verdure ; their heads droop ; the leaves shrink and fade ; the 

 stems become black and dead ; and they remain rattling with the breeze one against 

 another, until the violence of the pampero or hurricane levels them with the ground, where 

 they rapidly decompose and disappear the clover rushes up, and the scene is again 

 verdant. Such, in the main, is Captain Head's description of the extraordinary spectacle, 

 which has doubtless been annually exhibited by this division of the pampas ever since its 

 emergence from the ocean under whose billows it once lay. It must not be imagined, 

 however, that the region of the pampas displays uniformly this vigorous vegetation. 

 There are large spaces which are absolutely sterile tracts of sand and stone, but sur 

 rounded with districts sufficiently luxuriant to pasture enormous droves of cattle which 

 are more or less under the dominion of man. 



The northern division of the western continent contains a single connected tract of 

 flat country, which forms the central part of North America, reaching from the coasts 

 of the Mexican Gulf to the inhospitable shores of Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea. 

 This vast region, almost as large as the whole of Europe, is the site of two of the 

 greatest river-systems of the earth, that of the Mississippi with its affluents, and that of 

 the St. Lawrence with the chain of the Canadian Lakes. No prominent elevation 

 appears between these rivers pursuing different directions, serving as a water-shed ; and 

 as little observable is the elevation of the partition which separates the streams flowing 

 to the St. Lawrence and to Hudson's Bay. Both have a very gentle descent, and proceed 



