4 PLAINS CLIMATES. 



cation, the buffalo, and other great game of the North 

 American prairies, seem now to be almost extinct; in 

 South Africa too, the heavy game has, in the same 

 way, been gradually driven further and further to the 

 northward, until what remains of it is now rather to- 

 be found in the Bush Country, beyond the Desert Zone, 

 than upon the plains to the southward, which used 

 to be their favourite resort. 



The climate of the Great Plains, as might be expected 

 in so vast an extent of territory, varies considerably 

 in its character, according to the locality. In the 

 higher latitudes, the winters are often exceedingly 

 severe, but on their equatorial margins the climate 

 naturally partakes more or less of the dry climate of 

 the adjoining Desert Zone, large tracts of these plains 

 becoming desiccated during the summer season ; so as 

 to become veritable deserts for the time being. 



It is to be understood however, that we have now 

 reached a latitude where we are beyond the influence 

 of the tropical rains, and divided from them by the 

 rainless belt of the Desert Zone. In the Great Plains 

 country, therefore, there is no longer any regular " rainy 

 season," properly so called. We are now in the region of 

 variable rains, and this characteristic becomes gradually 

 more and more marked as we proceed towards the 

 poles. On the side adjoining the desert, the summers 

 are often exceedingly hot and dry; but the approach 

 of winter is generally accompanied by a copious 

 rainfall and a regular cold season. The rains are 

 however of an intermittent character, so that droughts 

 of a serious nature sometimes alternate with floods of 

 an equally disastrous kind; but during favourable 

 seasons all this country is covered with a luxuriant 



