70 



the plain extend in lavers, are conglomerated in 

 groups, or present to the astonished eye through 

 broad openings the habitations of man, the 

 labour of the fields, or the verdant tint of the 

 aerial ocean. An immense sheet of water, ani- 

 mated by a thousand various beings even to it's 

 utmost depths, changing perpetually it's colour 

 and it's aspect, movable at it's surface like the 

 element that agitates it, charms the imagination 

 in long voyages by sea ; but the dusty and 

 creviced steppe, during a great part of the year, 

 dejects the mind by it's unchanging monotony. 

 When, after eight or ten days' journey, the tra- 

 veller becomes accustomed to the play of the 

 mirage , and the brilliant verdure of a few tufts 

 of mauritia * scattered from league to league, 

 he feels the want of more varied impressions ; 

 he wishes to see again the great trees of the 

 tropics, the wild rush of torrents, or hills and 

 vallies cultivated by the hand of the labourer. 

 If, unhappily, the phenomenon of the deserts of 

 Africa, and that of the llanos or savannahs of 

 the New Continent (a phenomenon the cause of 

 which is lost in the obscurity of the first history 

 of our planet), filled a still greater space, nature 

 would be deprived of a part of the beautiful 

 productions, which are peculiar to the torrid 

 zone -f\ The heaths of the north, the steppes of 



* Fan palm, sago-tree of Guyana. 

 + In calculating from maps constructed on a very large 



