112 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



in the open air ; at night they scrape holes for themselves 

 in the snow ; they howl like wolves, in accompaniment with 

 a dog that sits in the middle of the circle and sets them off. 

 In Mexico the dogs were subjected to an operation to make 

 them fatter and better eating. On the borders of the 

 province of Durango, and farther to the north on the slave 

 lake, the natives, formerly at least, conveyed their tents of 

 buffalo skins on the backs of large dogs when changing 

 their place of residence with the change of season. All 

 these traits resemble the customs of the inhabitants of 

 eastern Asia. (Humboldt, Essai polit. T. ii. p. 448 ; Rela- 

 tion hist. T. ii. p. 625.) 



( 16 ) p. 8. " Like the greater part of the Desert of 

 Sahara, the Llanos are in the torrid zone" 



Significant denominations, particularly such as refer to 

 the form in relief of the earth's surface, and which have 

 arisen at a period when there was only very uncertain 

 information respecting the countries in question and their 

 hypsometric relations, have led to various and long- 

 continued geographical errors. The ancient denomination 

 of the " Greater and Lesser Atlas" (Ptol. Geogr. lib. iii. 

 cap. 1) has exercised the prejudicial influence here alluded to. 

 No doubt the snow-covered western summits of the Atlas 

 in the territory of Morocco may be regarded as the Great 

 Atlas of Ptolemy ; but where is the limit of the Little Atlas? 

 Is the division into two Atlas chains, which the conservative 

 tendencies of geographers have preserved for 1700 years, 

 to be still maintained in the territory of Algiers, and even 

 between Tunis and Tlemse ? Are we to seek between the 



