TROPICAL LANDSCAPE. 289 



trees, so that the wind does not blow upon them, 

 and when they get rain they get it in torrents. 



Another singular anomaly if it is to be sup- 

 posed that the characters of the vegetable tribes 

 are to follow the latitude, or even the latitude 

 and elevation is to be found in the Himalaya 

 mountains, and their continuation to the west. 

 At their lower slopes those mountains have the 

 vegetation of tropical Asia ; but as they are as- 

 cended, the vegetation of Europe makes its appear- 

 ance ; and the progress has much resemblance to 

 one from Italy to Lapland, in forest, orchard, 

 and every thing. 



But the genuine tropical landscape is a curious 

 sight, to those who have been accustomed to 

 nothing save the seasons of England and their 

 succession of productions and phenomena. These 

 productions are tempered to great peculiarities of 

 weather ; many months without a shower or any 

 moisture except the dew ; and then pelting rains 

 of the utmost violence. One year of such weather 

 would, if there were no help to be obtained from 

 any other quarter, cause a famine in England, and 

 go far toward converting the entire country into 

 a desert. No doubt many parts of the tropical 

 regions are deserts, and some are deserts now 

 which have traces of having been once fertile. It 

 is not so much, however, to any alteration of the 

 seasons that that is owing, as to alterations in 

 the earth itself, to the fact that the lakes have 

 been emptied, and the rivers have cut their chan- 

 nels so deep that they no longer continue to irri- 

 gate and fertilize the soil. 



There is protection against excess both of 

 drought and of moisture in the surfaces of most 

 c c 



