8 CROSSING THE GRASSY SEA. 



the same rule seems generally to hold good, and where 

 want of water and a sterile soil does not prevent it, 

 the coast line is in general well wooded, either with 

 trees or bush, except where the prevailing winds are 

 very keen. 



After traversing the coast region of forest however, 

 one is often surprised to find how suddenly the trees 

 cease, and the wooded country gives place to open 

 grassy plains the horizon often extending, as at sea, 

 to the sky line, without a single prominent object to 

 catch the eye: so that the resemblance to the ocean, 

 with which every traveller is impressed, is perhaps on 

 the whole often more complete upon the plains than 

 even in the desert indeed, if we might venture to 

 hazard a guess upon this subject, we should say that 

 great tracts of apparently level country are more 

 common upon the great plains than anywhere else. 

 Those who have travelled much upon the South Amer- 

 ican "Pampas" can hardly fail to have been struck 

 with the boundless extent of flat plains which are to 

 be met with there. 



Nevertheless it would be a great mistake to suppose 

 that such a description conveys a faithful picture of 

 the great plains in general, because in so vast a region 

 almost every variety of country is to be found, and as 

 an enormous area consists of undulating ground, the 

 resemblance to the ocean here frequently reappears by 

 the succession of undulations, very much like the heavy 

 rollers seen upon the sea after a severe gale. 



Considerable tracts of level country also occur, dotted 

 over with hillocks, rising abruptly out of the plain, in 

 some cases to a height of 50 or 60 feet ; from the crest 

 of one of these eminences, or " buttes" as they are 



