132 SOUTH AMERICA 



plain, studded in places with granite hills and hillocks, 

 crossed by broad rivers, bestrewn with swamps, and 

 periodically flooded. The climate is uniformly hot and 

 sweltering, with a dry and a wet season, and a fair 

 atmospheric humidity. Dew is abundant; rain, the 

 yearly average of which remains under sixty inches, 

 is not entirely lacking at any time of the year, but is 

 irregular, and severe droughts are not unknown. The 

 vegetation is that of a vast savana chequered by the 

 fringes of river-forests. Tall tufts of grasses, paspalum 

 and panicum, mingled with tuberous and perennial herbs 

 and evergreen shrubs form the bulk of it, though 

 columnar palms are interspersed in places, and isolated 

 clumps of short, gnarled trees become conspicuous land- 

 marks. On the llanos innumerable herds of wild cattle, 

 deer, antelopes, &c., are swarming. Marshes, overgrown 

 with tall sedges, and conspicuous in the distance thanks 

 to the groves of mauritia palms which fringe them, are 

 frequent, and provide good pastures in times of drought. 

 The granite hills which stand above the plain are clad 

 with tropical forests. 



The mesas, the southern foot of which is followed by 

 the Orinoco in its lower and middle course, are of a more 

 rolling character and more park-like in aspect. The 

 depressions are generally occupied by light woods, and 

 the type of country closely resembles the Guiana savanas 

 or llanos, south of the Guiana Highlands. The Orinoco 

 llanos are admirably adapted for grazing purposes, but 

 entirely undeveloped. Why, considering the compara- 

 tively high atmospheric humidity and the fair amount 

 of rainfall, the country should not be covered by some 

 light kind of woodland is not satisfactorily explained 

 yet, though perhaps the practice of grass-burning and 

 the heavy grazing may partly account for it. 



