224 DROUGHT AND DESOLATION. 



and violent, as if from the shock of an earthquake. If at such a time 

 two opposing currents of air, whose conflict produces a rotatory motion, 

 come in contact with the surface of the earth, the Llanos assume a 

 strange and singular aspect. Like cone-shaped clouds, whose ex- 

 tremities seem to touch, the ground, the sand rises through the 

 rarefied air in the electrically-charged centre of the whirling current ; 

 like the sand-spouts of the Saharan Desert, or the waterspouts which 

 formerly were the awe and dread of the mariner. Then does the 

 lowering sky cast a "dim uncertain light," like a November fog in 

 London, on the desolate plain. The horizon draws suddenly nearer; 

 the Steppe seems to contract, and a nameless terror seizes the heart 

 of the wanderer. The hot dusty air increases in suffocating heat ; 

 and the east wind, blowing over the long-heated soil, yields no re- 

 freshment, but rather oppresses with its burning glow. The pools, 

 hitherto protected from evaporation by the yellow fading branches of 

 the fan palm, begin to disappear. As in the north the animals grow 

 torpid with the mortal cold, so under the influence of the parching 

 drought the boa and the crocodile fall asleep, buried deeply in the dry 

 mud. Everywhere the drought prevails, and yet everywhere the 

 refracted rays of light delude the traveller with the image of gleaming 

 lakes and rushing rivers. The distant palm bush hovers above the 

 ground like a spectre, apparently raised by the influence of the con- 

 tact of unequally heated, and, therefore, unequally dense strata of air. 

 Half hidden by the rolling clouds of dust, restless with the pangs of 

 thirst and hunger, the horses and cattle roam around, the cattle dis- 

 mally lowing, and the horses stretching out their long necks and 

 snuffing the wind, in the hope some moister current may betray the 

 neighbourhood of a not wholly failing pool. More sagacious and 

 astute, the wary mule seeks a different mode of alleviating his thirst. 

 Under its prickly envelope the melon-cactus conceals a watery .pith. 

 The mule first strikes the prickles aside with his fore-feet, and then 

 cautiously approaches his lips to the plant and drinks the cool juice. 

 But the experiment is not always without danger, and many animals 

 are lamed by the spines of the cactus. 



