12 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



In the wintry solitudes of Siberia the skin of the reindeer 

 affords protection to man against the extreme cold ; but in these 

 sultry plains there is no refuge from the burning sun above 

 and the heat reflected from the glowing soil below, save where, 

 at vast intervals, small clumps of the Mauritia palm afford a 

 scanty shade. The water-pools which nourished this beneficent 

 tree have long since disappeared ; and the marks of the previous 

 rainy season, still visible on the tall reeds that spring from the 

 marshy ground, serve only to mock the thirst of the exhausted 

 traveller. The long-legged jabiru and the scarlet ibis have 

 forsaken the dried-up swamp which no longer affords them any 

 subsistence, and only here and there a solitary Caracara falcon 

 lingers on the spot, as if meditating on the vicissitudes of the 

 seasons. 



Yet even now the parched savannah has some refreshment 

 to bestow, as Nature — which in the East Indian forests fills 



the pitchers of the Nepenthes with a 

 grateful liquid, — here also displays 

 her bounty ; for the globular melon- 

 cactus, which flourishes on the driest 

 soil, and not seldom measures a foot 

 in diameter, conceals a juicy pulp 

 under its tough and brickly skin. 

 Gruided by an admirable instinct, 

 the wary mule strikes off with his 

 fore-feet the long, sharp thorns of 

 this remarkable plant, the emblem 

 of good-nature under a rough ex- 

 terior, and then cautiously ap- 

 proaches his lips to sip the refresh- 

 ing juice. Yet, drinking from these living sources is not 

 unattended with danger, and mules are often met with that 

 have been lamed by the formidable prickles of the cactus. The 

 wild horse and ox of the savannah, not gifted with the same 

 sagacity, roam about a prey to hunger and burning thirst — the 

 latter hoarsely bellowing, the former snufiing up the air with 

 outstreched neck to discover by its moisture the neighbourhood 

 of some pool that may have resisted the general drought. 



Besides their interminable extent, the Llanos have several 

 other points of resemblance to the sea. As here the water-spout. 



NEPENTHES. 



