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distant regions ; and, instead of designating those 

 vast plains destitute of trees by the nature of the 

 plants they produce, it seems natural to distin- 

 guish them into deserts, and steppes or savannahs; 

 into bare lands without any appearance of vege- 

 tation, and lands covered with gramina or small 

 plants of the dicotyledonous tribe. The savan- 

 nahs of America, especially those of the tempe- 

 rate zone, have in many works been designated 

 by the name of prairies # : but this term appears 

 to me little applicable to pastures, that are often 

 very dry, though covered with grass of four or 

 five feet in height. The Llanos and the Pampos 

 of South America are real steppes. They dis- 

 play a beautiful verdure in the rainy season, but 

 in the time of great drought assume the aspect 

 of a desert. The grass is then reduced to pow- 

 der ; the earth cracks ; the alligator and the 

 great serpents remain buried in the dried mud, 

 till awakened from their long lethargy by the 

 first showers of spring. These phenomena are 

 observed on barren tracts of fifty or sixty leagues 

 in length, wherever the savannahs are not tra- 

 versed by rivers ; for on the borders of rivulets, 

 and around little pools of stagnant water, the 

 traveller finds at certain distances, even during 

 the period of the great droughts, thickets of 

 mauritia, a palm, the leaves of which, spread 

 out like a fan, preserve a brilliant verdure. 



* Th© French word for mcadoivs. Ed. 



