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38 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



from the horizon. Gradually the increasing vapors spread like mist 

 over the sky, and now the distant thunder ushers in the life-restoring 

 rain. Hardly has the surface of the earth received the refreshing 

 moisture, before the previously barren Steppe begins to exhale sweet 

 odors, and to clothe itself with Kyllingias, the many panicules of the 

 Paspalum, and a variety of grasses. The herbaceous mimosas, with 

 renewed sensibility to the influence of light, unfold their drooping, 

 slumbering leaves to greet the rising un ; and the early song of 

 birds, and the opening blossoms of the water plants, join to salute 

 the morning. The horses and cattle now graze in full enjoyment 

 of life. The tall springing grass hides the beautifully spotted jaguar, 

 who, lurking in safe concealment, and measuring carefully the dis- 

 tance of a single bound, springs, cat-like, as the Asiatic tiger, on his 

 passing prey. 



Sometimes, (so the Aborigines relate,) on the margin of the swamps 

 the moistened clay is seen to blister and rise slowly in a kind of 

 mound; then with a violent noise, like the outbreak of a small mud 

 volcano, the heaped-up earth is cast high into the air. The beholder, 

 acquainted with the meaning of this spectacle, flies, for he knows 

 there will issue forth a gigantic water-snake or a scaly crocodile, 

 awakened from a torpid state ( 39 ) by the first fall of rain. 



The rivers which bound the plain to the south, the. Arauca, 

 Apure, and Payara, become gradually swollen; and now nature con- 

 strains the same animals, who in the first half of the year panted 

 with thirst on the dry and dusty soil, to adopt an amphibious life. 

 A portion of the Steppe now presents the aspect of a vast inland 

 sea. (^ The brood mares retire with their foals, to the higher 

 banks, which stand like islands above the surface of the lake. 

 Every day the space remaining dry becomes smaller. The animals, 

 crowded together, swim about for hours in search of other pasture, 

 and feed sparingly on the tops of the flowering grasses rising above 

 the seething surface of the dark-colored water. Many foals are 

 drowned, and many are surprised by the croco'diles, killed by a stroke 

 of their powerful notched tails, and devoured. It is not a rare thing 

 to see the marks of the pointed teeth of these monsters on the legs 

 of the horses and cattle who have narrowly escaped from their 

 blood-thirsty jaws. Such a sight reminds the thoughtful observer 



