260 NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



language, I would recall the numerous characteristic appella- 

 tions which may be used in Arabic ( l ) and in Persian to 

 distinguish plains, steppes, and deserts, according as they 

 are quite bare, covered with sand, broken by tabular masses 

 of rock, or interspersed with patches of pasturage, or with 

 long tracts occupied by social plants. Scarcely less striking 

 is it to observe in the old Castilian idiom ( 2 ) the many expres- 

 sions afforded for describing the physiognomy of moun- 

 tain-masses, and more particularly for designating those 

 features which, recurring in every zone of the earth's 

 surface, announce from afar to the attentive beholder the 

 nature of the rock. As the declivities of the Andes, of 

 Peru, Chili, and Mexico, and the mountainous parts of the 

 Canaries, the Antilles and the Philippines, are all inhabited 

 by men of Spanish descent, and as these are the parts of 

 the earth where, (with the exception, perhaps, of the 

 Himalaya and the Thibetian Highlands), the manner of 

 iife of the inhabitants is most affected by and dependent 

 on the form of the earth's surface, so all the expressions 

 which the language of the mother country afforded for 

 denoting the forms of mountains in trachytic, basaltic, 

 and porphyritic districts, as well as in those where schists, 

 limestones, and sandstone are the prevailing rocks, have 

 been happily preserved in daily use. Under such influences 

 even newly formed words become part of the common 

 treasure. Speech is enriched and animated by everything 

 that tends to and promotes truth to nature, whether in 

 rendering the impressions received through the senses 

 from the contemplation of the external world, or in 



