STEPPES AND DESERTS. 23 



wearied fish begin to disperse ; long repose and abundant 

 food are required to replace the galvanic force which they 

 have expended. Their shocks become gradually weaker and 

 weaker. Terrified by the noise of the trampling horses, they 

 timidly approach the bank, where they are wounded by 

 harpoons, and cautiously drawn on shore by non-conducting 

 pieces of dry wood. 



Such is the extraordinary battle between horses and fish. 

 That which forms the invisible but living weapon of this 

 electric eel ; that which, awakened by the contact of moist 

 dissimilar particles, ( 43 ) circulates through all the organs of 

 plants and animals ; that which, flashing from the thunder 

 cloud, illumines the wide skyey canopy ; that which draws 

 iron to iron and directs the silent recurring march of the 

 guiding needle ; all, like the several hues of the divided 

 ray of light, flow from one source; and all blend again 

 together in one perpetually, every where diffused, force or 

 power. 



I might here close the hazardous attempt to trace a 

 picture of nature such as she shows herself in the Steppes. 

 But as on the ocean fancy not unwillingly dwells awhile on 

 the image of its distant shores, so, before the wide plain 

 disappears from our view, let us cast a rapid glance at 

 the regions by which the Steppes are bounded. 



The Northern Desert of Africa divides two races of men 

 who belong originally to the same part of the globe, and 

 whose unreconciled discord appears as ancient as the mythus 

 of Osiris and Typhoii. ( 44 ) North of the Atlas there dwell 

 nations with long and straight hair, of sallow complexion and 



