146 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



pasture. Sheep are only numerous in the mountains and hilly 

 tracts, cattle, horses, mules, and asses being run on the plains or 

 llanos, hence their name of cattle-i)lains. The greatest heat is 

 experienced on the cattle-plains ; on that undulating country the 

 thermometer ranges between 83 deg. and 95 deg., and the mean 

 annual heat, 83 deg., is greater than that of the Equator at tlie 

 sea-level. At the lower end of the Rio Apure the heat is intoler- 

 able during the dry season, as the north-easterly wind passes 

 over the jstrongly-heated surface of the tableland before it 

 arrives at the low plains of the Apure, and thus the air feels 

 as if it came from an oven, the same as on a " brickfielder " day 

 in Australia. The heated sand, which is suspended in the air 

 and carried forward by whirlwinds, renders it still more dis- 

 agreeable. The heat of this part is between 86 deg. and 98 

 deg., the mean annual heat being 91 deg. The heat is much 

 less in those parts which are covered with forests ; there the 

 mean temperature is onlj- about 77 deg., and the thermometer 

 ranges between 73 deg. and 82 deg. In the dry season the heat 

 is greatest from January to March, but in the wet. from July 

 to December, the heat is frequently accompanied by heavy 

 thunderstorms, partially clearing the air. At this time of the 

 year, rains are generally abundant and continual. By an esti- 

 mate it has been found that, on an average, it rains three hours 

 every day, generally towards evening ; about midsummer it some- 

 times does not rain for a whole month. This season is called 

 the Little Summer of St. John. In the extensive forests of the 

 southern district the annual amount of rain is between 90 and 

 100 inches. The rain which descends in this tract in one day 

 frequently exceeds what falls in a whole week in the southern 

 countries of Europe during the most rainy period of the year. 

 On the lower grassy plains the annual rainfall varies between 70 

 and 80 inches. On the higher region of the Andes it rains all 

 the year round, especially after sunrise. On the paramos or 

 mountains (more than 10,000 ft. above the sea-level) it sno\^'^ 

 and hails continuously, and the air is always charged with a 

 thick fog, which disappears at midnight, but returns at sunrise. 



Between the Rio Apure and the Rio Meta, both affluents of 

 the Orinoco, are the llanos of Apure, containing the lowest por- 

 tion of the cattle-plains. The lowest tract is only 224 ft. above 

 the level of the sea, though more than 500 miles distant from 

 that part of the ocean to which the waters descend. This plain 

 is so level that the current of the Apure and ]\Ieta is impercep- 

 tible and the least rise in the Orinoco causes their waters to- 



