295 



near Gran and Waitzen; the other between 

 Belgrade and Widdin. 



The different parts of the world have been 

 supposed to be characterised by sayings that 

 Europe has it's heaths, Asia it's steppes, Africa 

 it's deserts, and America it's savannahs ; but by 

 this distinction contrasts are established, that 

 are not founded either on the nature of things, 

 or the genius of languages. The existence of a 

 heath always supposes an association of plants 

 of the family of ericce; the steppes of Asia are 

 not every where covered with saline plants ; the 

 savannahs of Venezuela furnish not only the 

 gramma, but with them small herbaceous mi- 

 mosas, legumina, and other dicotyledonous 

 plants. The plains of Songaria, those which 

 extend between the Don and the Volga, and 

 the Puszta, of Hungary, are real savannahs, 

 pasturages abounding in grasses ; while the sa- 

 vannahs to the East and West of the Stony 

 Mountains and of New Mexico produce cheno- 

 podiums, containing carbonat and muriat of 

 soda *. Asia has real deserts, destitute of vege- 

 tation, in Arabia, in Gobi, and in Persia. Since 



and Szoboszlo. I calculated, according to the map of Lipsky, 

 the area of these plains of the interior basin of Hungary to be 

 two thousand five hundred or three thousand square leagues, 

 of twenty to a degree. Between Czegled, Szolnok, and 

 Ketskemet, the plain is almost a sea of sand. 



* North- West of the Missoury, and North of the Rio 

 Zaguananas, which flows into the Rio Colorado of California 



