40 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



But the Indians, armed with long poles of bamboo, drive them back 

 into the middle of the pool. Gradually the fury of the unequal 

 strife begins to slacken. Like clouds which have discharged their 

 electricity, the wearied fish begin to disperse; long repose and 

 abundant food are required to replace the galvanic force which they 

 have expended. Their shocks become gradually weaker and weaker. 

 Terrified by the noise of the trampling horses, they timidly approach 

 the bank, where they are wounded by harpoons, and cautiously drawn 

 ,on shore by non-conducting pieces of dry wood. 



Such is the extraordinary battle between horses and fish. That 

 which forms the invisible but living weapon of this electric eel; 

 that which, awakened by the contact of moist, dissimilar particles, ( 43 ) 

 circulates through all the organs of plants and animals; that 

 which, flashing from the thunder .cloud, illumines the wide skyey 

 canopy; that which draws iron to iron, and directs the silent recur- 

 ring march of the guiding needle ; all, like the several hues of the 

 divided ray of light, flow from one source; and all blend again to- 

 gether in one perpetually, everywhere diffused, force or power. 



I might here close the hazardous attempt to trace a picture of 

 nature such as she shows herself in the Steppes. But as on the 

 ocean fancy not unwillingly dwells awhile on the image of its distant 

 shores, so, before the wide plain disappears from our view, let us cast 

 a rapid glance at the regions by which the Steppes are bounded. 

 I/ The Northern Desert of Africa divides two races of men who 

 /belong originally to the same part of the globe, and whose unrecon- 

 v > ciled discord appears as ancient as the mythus of Osiris and Ty- 

 V phon. (**) North of the Atlas there dwell nations with long and 

 straight hair, of sallow complexion, and Caucasian features. On the 

 south of the Senegal, towards Soudan, live hordes of negroes in many 

 different stages of civilization. In Central Asia, the Mongolian Steppe 

 divides Siberian barbarism from the ancient civilization of the penin- 

 sula of India. 



The South American Steppes form the boundary of a partial Eu- 

 ropean cultivation. ( 45 ) To the north, between the mountains of 

 Venezuela and the Caribbean sea, we find commercial cities, neat 

 7 villages, and carefully cultivated fields. Even the love of art and 

 ; jj3cjentific culture, together with the noble desire of civil freedom, 



