20 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



rain. Hardly lias the surface of the earth received the 

 refreshing moisture, before the previously barren Steppe 

 begins to exhale sweet odours, and to clothe itself with 

 Kyllingias, the many panicules of the Paspalum, and a variety 

 of grasses. The herbaceous mimosas, with renewed sensi- 

 bility to the influence of light, unfold their drooping slum- 

 bering leaves to greet the rising sun ; and the early song of 

 birds, and the opening blossoms of the water plants, join to 

 salute the morning. The horses and cattle now graze in 

 full enjoyment of life. The tall springing grass hides the 

 beautifully spotted jaguar, who lurking in safe concealment, 

 and measuring carefully the distance of a single bound, 

 springs, cat-like, as the Asiatic tiger, on his passing prey. 



Sometimes, (so the Aborigines relate), on the margin of 

 the swamps the moistened clay is seen to blister and rise 

 slowly in a kind of mound ; then with a violent noise, like 

 the outbreak of a small mud volcano, the heaped-up earth is 

 Cast high into the air. The beholder acquainted with the 

 meaning of this spectacle flies, for he knows there will issue 

 forth a gigantic water- snake or a scaly crocodile, awakened 

 from a torpid state ( 39 ) by the first fall of rain. 



The rivers which bound the plain to the south, the 

 Arauca, Apure, and Payara, become gradually swollen ; and 

 now nature constrains the same animals, who in the first 

 half of the year panted with thirst on the dry and dusty 

 soil, to adopt an amphibious life. A portion of the Steppe 

 now presents the aspect of a vast inland sea. ( 40 ) The 

 brood mares retire with their foals to the higher banks, 

 which stand like islands above the surface of the lake. 



