STEPPES AND DESERTS. 21 



Every day the space remaining dry becomes smaller. The 

 animals, crowded together, swim about for hours in search 

 of other pasture, ^ and feed sparingly on the tops of the 

 flowering grasses rising above the seething surface of the 

 dark-coloured water. Many foals are drowned,, and many 

 are surprised by the crocodiles, killed by a stroke of their 

 powerful notched tails, and devoured. It is not a rare 

 thing to see the marks of the pointed teeth of these monsters 

 on the legs of the horses and cattle who have narrowly 

 escaped from their blood-thirsty jaws. Such a sight reminds 

 the thoughtful observer involuntarily of the capability of 

 conforming to the most varied circumstances, with which the 

 all-providing Author of Nature has endowed certain animals 

 and plants. 



The ox and the horse, like the farinaceous cerealia, have 

 followed man over the whole surface of the globe, from 

 India to Northern Siberia, from the Ganges to the River 

 Plate, from the African sea shore to the mountain plateau 

 of Antisana, ( 41 ) which is higher than the summit of the 

 Peak of Teneriffe. The ox wearied from the plough reposes, 

 sheltered from the noontide sun in one country by the 

 quivering shadow of the northern birch, and in another by 

 the date palm. The same species which, in the east of 

 Europe, has to encounter the attacks of bears and wolves, 

 is exposed in other regions to the assaults of tigers and 

 crocodiles. 



But the crocodile and jaguar are not the only assailants 

 of the South American horses ; they have also a dangerous 

 enemy among fishes. The marshy waters of Bera and 



