154 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



(**) p. 40. " Osiris and Typkon" 



On the conflict between two races of men, the Arabian pastoral 

 people in Lower Egypt, and the agricultural race in Upper Egypt 

 who were in a more advanced state of civilization ; on the fair-haired 

 Prince Baby or Typhon, who founded Pelusium ; and on the dark- 

 complexioned Dionysos or Osiris, see Zoega's ancient, and now for 

 the most part abandoned views, in his great work " De Origine et 

 Usu Obeliscorum," p. 577. 



V 



f 45 ) p. 40. " The boundary of a partial European, cultivation" 

 In the Capitania General de Caracas, as generally everywhere on 

 the eastern shores of America, the cultivation introduced by Eu- 

 ropeans, and their presence and influence, are limited to a narrow 

 strip of country along the coast. In Mexico, New Granada, and 

 Quito, on the other hand, European civilization has penetrated deep 

 into the interior of the country, and advanced up the ridges of the 

 Cordilleras. There existed in these last named regions a considerable 

 degree of settled and civilized life previous to the arrival of the Span- 

 iards ; and they have followed this civilization wherever they found 

 it, regardless whether its seat was near or at a distance from the sea 

 coast. They retained and enlarged the ancient cities, of which they 

 either mutilated the old significant Indian names, or gave them new 

 names, as, for example, of Christian saints. 



( M ) p. 41. " Massive ,' leaden-colored granite rocks." 

 In the Orinoco, and more especially at the Cataracts of Maypures 

 and Atures, all blocks of granite, and even white pieces of quartz, 

 whenever they are touched by the water of the river, acquire a 

 grayish-black coating which scarcely penetrates a hundredth of 

 a line below the surface of the rock. The appearance produced 

 is that of basalt, or fossils colored with graphite. The crust ap- 

 pears to contain manganese and carbon j I say appears, for the 

 phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly examined. Something 

 similar was remarked by Rozier on the syenite rocks of the Nile, 

 near Syene and Philae; by the unfortunate Captain Tuckey on the 

 rocky banks of the Congo; and by Sir Robert Schomburgk on the 

 Berbice. (Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoko, s. 212.) On the 



