DBE1ET ASPECT >F PLAINS. 85 



The earth there was confounded with the sky. Through the 

 dry mist and strata of vapour the trunks of palm-trees were 

 seen from afar, stripped of their foliage and their verdant 

 summits, and looking like the masts of a ship descried upon 

 the horizon. 



There is something awful, as well as sad and gloomy, 

 in the uniform aspect of these steppes. Everything seems 

 motionless ; scarcely does a small cloud, passing across the 

 zenith, and denoting the approach of the rainy season, cast 

 its shadow on the earth. I know not whether the first 

 aspect of the Llanos excite less astonishment than that of the 

 chain of the Andes. Mountainous countries, whatever may 

 be the absolute elevation of the highest summits, have an 

 anologous physiognomy; but we accustom ourselves with 

 difficulty to the view of the Llanos of Venezuela and Casa- 

 nare, to that of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and of Chaco, 

 which recal to mind incessantly, and during journeys of 

 twenty or thirty days, the smooth surface of the ocean. I 

 had seen the plains or llanos of La Mancha in Spain, and 

 the heaths (ericeta) that extend from the extremity of Jut- 

 land, through Luneburg and Westphalia, to Belgium. These 

 last are really steppes, and, during several ages, only small 

 portions of them have yielded to cultivation ; but the plains 

 of the west and north of Europe present only a feeble image 

 of the immense llanos of South America. It is in the south- 

 east of our continent, in Hungary, between the Danube and 

 the Theiss ; in Russia, between the Borysthenes, the Don, 

 and the Volga, that we find those vast pastures, which seem 

 to have been levelled by a long abode of the waters, and 

 which meet the horizon on every side. The plains of Hun- 

 gary, where I traversed them on the frontiers of Germany, 

 between Presburg and (Edenburg, strike the imagination of 

 the traveller by the constant mirage; but their greatest 

 extent is more to the east, between Czegled, Debreczin, and 

 Tittel. There they present the appearance of a vast ocean 

 of verdure, having only two outlets, one near Gran and 

 Waitzen, the other between Belgrade and Widdin. 



The different Quarters of the world have been supposed to 

 be characterized oy the remark, that Europe has its heaths, 

 Asia its steppes, Africa its deserts, and America its savan- 

 nahs ; but by this distinction, contrasts are established that 



