THB 



CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



IN the preceding section, which was made the subject of 

 an academical lecture, I sought to depict those boundless 

 plains which, according to the varying modification of their 

 natural characters induced by climatic relations, appear to 

 us sometimes as Deserts devoid of vegetation, and some- 

 times as Steppes > or widely-extended grassy plains or 

 Prairies. In so doing I contrasted the Llanos of the 

 southern part of the New Continent with the dreadful 

 seas of sand which form the African Deserts ; and these 

 again with the Steppes of Central Asia, the habitation of 

 world-assailing pastoral nations, who at* a former period, 

 when pressed hitherward from the East, spread barbarism 

 and devastation over the earth. 



If on that occasion, (in 1806,) I ventured to combine 

 widely distributed portions of the earth's surface in a single 

 picture of nature, and to entertain a public assembly witli 

 images whose colouring was in unison with the mournful 

 disposition of our minds at that epoch, I will now, limiting 

 myself to a narrower circle 01 phenomena, sketch the more 

 cheerful picture of river scenery composed of foaming rapids 

 and rich luxuriant vegetation. I propose to describe in 

 particular two scenes of nature in the wildernesses of Guiana, 

 the celebrated Cataracts of the Orinoco, Atures and 



