34" STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



long-horned Rocky Mountain Sheep abounds on the arid limestone 

 rocks of California. The Vicunas, Huanacos, Alpacas, and Lamas 

 belong to South America ; but the two first named of all these use- 

 ful animals, i. e. 7 the Buffalo and the Musk Ox, have retained their 

 natural freedom for two thousand years, and the use of milk and 

 cheese, like the possession and cultivation of farinaceous grasses, ( 27 ) 

 .- has remained a distinguishing characteristic of the nations of the 

 ! Old World. 



If some of the latter have crossed from Northern Asia to the west 

 coast of America, and if, keeping by preference to the cooler mount- 

 ain regions, (*) they have followed the lofty ridge of the Andes 

 towards the south, their migration must have taken place by ways 

 \ in which they could not be accompanied by their flocks and herds, 

 "or bring with them the cultivation of corn. "When the long-shaken 

 empire of the Hiongnu fell, may we conjecture that the movement 

 of this powerful tribe may also have occasioned in the north-east of 

 China and in Corea a shock and an impulse which may have caused 

 civilized Asiatics to pass over into the New Continent ? If such a 

 migration had consisted of inhabitants of the Steppes in which 

 agriculture was not pursued, this hazardous hypothesis (which has 

 hitherto been but little favored by the comparison of languages) 

 would at least explain the striking absence of the Cereals in Ame- 

 rica. Possibly one of those Asiatic priestly colonies whom mystic 

 dreams sometimes impelled to embark in long voyages, (of which 

 the history of the peopling of Japan ( 29 ) in the time of Thsinchi- 

 huang-ti offers a memorable example,) may have been driven by 

 Wtorms to the coasts of New California. 



| If, then, pastoral life, that beneficent middle stage which attaches 



nomadic hunting hordes to desirable pastures, and prepares them, as 



it were, for agriculture, has remained unknown to the aboriginal 



nations of America, this circumstance sufficiently explains the ab- 



L sence of -human inhabitants in the South American Steppes. This 



V absence has allowed the freest scope for the abundant development 



\ of the most varied forms of animal life ; a development limited only 



'"by their mutual pressure, and similar to that of vegetable life in the 



\ y forests of the Orinoco, where the Hymenaea and the gigantic laurel are 



*' never exposed to the destructive hand of man, but only to the prcs- 



