BOOK III. 



PRAIRIES, SAVANNAHS, PAMPAS, AND LLANOS. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE WILD PLAINS OF THE OLD WORLD : THE AFRICAN INTERIOR. 



jjHEX we have crossed the 18th parallel (or nearly so) of 

 north latitude in Africa and the 30th in Asia the 

 southern boundary of the Rainless District countries of 

 extreme fertility and exuberant product succeed to the dreary soli- 

 tudes we have hitherto traversed. 



At intervals, indeed, the traveller encounters some vast blighted 

 and accursed area, where, for a part of each year, a deadly aridity 

 prevails ; but ever there comes a happy moment, even in these 

 desolate wastes, when genial Nature resumes her rights, abundant 

 rains nourish vegetable and animal life, and the glowing scene con- 

 strains us to exclaim with thankful heart, " The earth is the Lord's, 

 and the fulness thereof." 



The Asiatic plains in the south, are, however, preserved from 

 such abrupt alternations; numerous water-courses, leaping downward 

 from the snowy fountains of the Himalayan chain, refresh and fertilize 

 these countries, which are almost everywhere subject to the dominion 

 of man. Analagous causes, in the grand rich islands of the warm 

 Indian seas, produce similar effects ; there, also, the very deserts are 

 humid regions, and tall grasses, bushes, shrubs, reeds, and climbing 



