STEPPES AND DESERTS. 29 



in Pannonia, on the Marne, and on the Po, desolating those fair and 

 fertile fields which, since the time of Antenor, civilized man had 

 adorned with monument after monument. Thus went forth from 

 the Mongolian deserts a deadly blast, which withered on Cisalpine 

 ground the tender, long-cherished flower of art. 



From the salt Steppes of Asia, from the European Heaths smiling 

 in summer with their purple blossoms rich in honey, and from the 

 arid Deserts of Africa, devoid of all vegetation, let us now return to 

 those South American plains of which I have already began to trace 

 the picture, albeit in rude outlines. 



The interest which this picture can offer to the beholder is, how- 

 ever, exclusively that of pure nature. Here no Oasis recalls the 

 memory of earlier inhabitants; no carved stone, ( ls ) no ruined 

 building, no fruit tree once the care of the cultivator, but now wild, 

 speaks of the art or industry of former generations. As if estranged 

 from the destinies of mankind, and rivetting attention solely to the 

 present moment, this corner of the earth appears as a wild theatre 

 for the free development of animal and vegetable life. 



The Steppe extends from the Caraccas coast chain to the forests 

 of Ghiiana, and from the snowy mountains of Merida (on the slope 

 of which the Natron Lake Urao is an object of superstitious venera- 

 tion to the natives), to the great delta formed by the Orinoco at its 

 mouth. To the south-west a branch is prolonged, like an arm of 

 the sea, ( 13 ) beyond the banks of the Meta and Vichada to the un- 

 visited sources of the Gluaviare, and to the lonely mountain to which 

 the excited fancy of the Spanish soldiery gave the name of Paramo 

 de la Suma Paz the seat of perfect peace. 



This Steppe occupies a space of 16,000 (256,000 English) square 

 miles. It has often been erroneously described as running uninter- 

 ruptedly, and with an equal breadth, to the Straits of Magellan, 

 forgetting the forest-covered plain of the Amazons, which intervenes 

 between the grassy Steppes of the Apure and those of the river 

 Plate. The Andes of Cochabamba, and the Brazilian group of 

 mountains, send forth, between the province of Chiquitos and the 

 isthmus of Villabella, some detached spurs, which advance, as it 

 were, to meet each other. ( 14 ) A narrow plain connects the forest 

 lands of the Amazons with the- Pampas of Buenos Ayres. The 



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