OF CREATION. 351 



since there has probably been but little difference in 

 this respect, we shall thus learn at the same time the 

 conditions under which the ancient inhabitants may 

 have lived. 



The almost boundless plains, to which in South 

 America the name " Pampas " is given, are localities 

 equally remarkable and interesting to the zoologist, 

 the botanist, and the geologist. They are not ac- 

 tually level, but rather gently undulating; yet, at the 

 same time, the change of level is so gradual and 

 small, that the undulations more resemble the swell 

 of a great ocean in a calm, than any smaller or more 

 visible hills. Over these tracts the traveller may pass 

 for a hundred miles, without seeing any change either 

 in the nature or the products of the soil, and without 

 meeting with a single pebble. They exhibit the 

 appearance of a sea-bottom which has remained for 

 a long period undisturbed ; and it is impossible to 

 conceive anything more monotonous, or in that re- 

 spect more dreary, than a journey over a desert so 

 boundless. A succession of broad flat terraces, of dif- 

 ferent elevation, but in all respects similar, character- 

 ises also the whole district of Patagonia from the sea 

 to the mountain chain on the western coast. 



But it must not be imagined that the vegetation in 

 those tracts partakes of the dreary and monotonous 

 aspect of the country. It is, on the contrary, rich to 

 a degree scarcely imaginable in a country and cli- 

 mate like ours. It exhibits occasionally clumps of 

 well-grown trees, but more commonly the rapid and 

 rank luxuriance of tropical districts. The whole of 

 that part of South America, which is spread out in 

 flat valleys between the branches and trunks of the 



