70 DISCREPANCIES. 



removed, we find it to be a mass of cellular tissue, filled 

 with fluid much like that in a young turnip. Owing to the 

 depth beneath the soil at which it is found, it is generally 

 deliciously cool and refreshing. Another kind, named 

 mokuri, is seen in other parts of the country, where long- 

 continued heat parches the soil. This plant is a herbaceous 

 creeper, and deposits underground a number of tubers, 

 some as large as a man's head, at spots in a circle a yard 

 or more, horizontally, from the stem. The natives strike 

 the ground on the circumference of the circle with stones, 

 till, by hearing a difference of sound, they know the water- 

 bearing tuber to be beneath. They then dig down a foot 

 or so, and find it."* 



There are deserts on the Pacific coast of South America 

 as horribly barren as any in Africa or Asia, if not so ex- 

 tensive. One of these is described by Mr Darwin, who was 

 all day riding across it, as a " a complete and utter desert." 



" The road/' he says, " was strewed with the bones and 

 dried skins of the many beasts of burden which had 

 perished on it from fatigue. Excepting the Vullur aura, 

 which preys on the carcases, I saw neither bird, quadruped, 

 reptile, nor insect. On the coast-mountains, at the height 

 of about 2000 feet, where during this season the clouds 

 generally hang, a very few Cacti were growing in the clefts 

 of rock, and the loose sand was strewed over with a 

 lichen, which lies on the surface quite unattached. This 

 plant belongs to the genus Cladonia, and somewhat re- 

 sembles the reindeer lichen. In some parts it was in suf- 

 ficient quantity to tinge the sand, as seen from a distance, 



* Livingstone's Travels, p. 47. 



