26 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



image is repeated in the lower stratum of undulating vapor, we 

 seem to see before us a shoreless ocean. ( 3 ) Like the ocean, the 

 Steppe fills the mind with the feeling of infinity; and thought, 

 escaping from the visible impressions of space, rises to contemplations 

 of a higher order. Yet the aspect of the clear, transparent mirror 

 of the ocean, with its light, curling, gently foaming, sportive waves, 

 cheers the heart like that of a friend ; but the Steppe lies stretched 

 before us dead and rigid, like the stony crust ( 4 ) of a desolated 

 planet. 



In every zone nature presents the phenomena of these great 

 plains:, in each they l>a^e a peculiar physiognomy, determined by 

 diversity of seil/by climate, and by elevation above the level of the 



r ' IB 'Hbrinera Europe, the Heaths, which, covered with a single 

 race of plants repelling all others, extend from the point of Jutland 

 to the mouth of the Scheldt, may be regarded as true Steppes but 

 Steppes of small extent and hilly surface, if compared with the 

 Llanos and Pampas of South America, or even with the Prairies of 

 the Missouri ( 5 ) and the Barrens of the Coppermine river ; where 

 range countless herds of the shaggy buffalo and musk ox. 



A grander and severer aspect characterizes the plains of the in- 

 terior of Africa. Like the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, it is 

 only in recent times that attempts have been made to explore them 

 thoroughly. They are parts of a sea of sand, which, stretching 

 eastward, separates fruitful regions from each other, or encloses them 

 like islands; as where the Desert, near the basaltic mountains of 

 Harudsh, ( 6 ) surrounds the Oasis of Siwah rich in date trees, and in 

 which the ruins of the temple of Ammon mark the venerable site 

 of an ancient civilization. Neither dew nor rain bathes these desolate 

 plains, or develops on their glowing surface the germs of vegetable 

 life; for heated columns of air, everywhere ascending, dissolve the 

 vapors, and disperse each swiftly vanishing cloud. 



Where the Desert approaches the Atlantic Ocean, as between the 

 Wadi Nun and Cape Blanco, the moist sea air pours in to supply 

 the void left by these upward currents. The mariner, steering to- 

 wards the mouth of the Gambia through a sea covered with weed, 

 when suddenly deserted by the east trade wind of the tropics, ( 7 ) infers 



