STEPPES AND DESERTS. 17 



jH 



like the plaintain and almost all tropical fruits, a dif- 

 ferent kind of nutriment, according as they are eaten after 

 their saccharine substance is fully developed, or in their 

 earlier or more farinaceous state. Thus in the lowest stage 

 of man's intellectual development, we find the existence of 

 an entire people bound up with that of a single tree ; like 

 the insect which lives exclusively on a single part of a 

 particular flower. 



Since the discovery of the New Continent, the Llanos 

 have become habitable to men. In order to facilitate com- 

 munication between the Orinoco country and the coasts, 

 towns have been built here and there on the banks of the 

 streams which flow through the Steppes. ( 33 ) The rearing 

 of cattle has began over all parts of these vast regions. 

 Eluts, formed of reeds tied together with thongs and covered 

 with skins, are placed at distances of a da/s journey from 

 each other; numberless herds of oxen, horses, and mules, 

 estimated at the peaceful epoch of my journey at a million 

 and a half, roam over the Steppe. The immense multiplica- 

 tion of these animals, originally brought by man from the 

 Old Continent, is the more remarkable from the number of 

 dangers with which they have to contend. 



When, under the vertical rays of the never-clouded sun, 

 the carbonized turfy covering falls into dust, the indurated 

 soil cracks asunder as if from the shock of an earthquake. 

 If at such times two opposing currents of air, whose conflict 

 produces a rotatory motion, come in contact with the soil, 

 the plain assumes a strange and singular aspect. Like 

 conical-shaped clouds ( 34 ) the points of which descend 

 VOL. i. c 



