294 



ject only some small portions to cultivation; 

 but the plains of the West and North of Europe 

 present a feeble image of the immense Llanos of 

 South America. It is in the South-East of our 

 continent, in Hungary between the Danube and 

 the Theiss ; in Russia, between the Borysthenes 

 the Don, and the Wolga, that we find those 

 vast pastures, which seem to have been levelled 

 by a long abode of the waters, and terminate 

 the horizon on every side. The plains of Hun- 

 gary, where I traversed them, on the frontiers of 

 Germany, between Presburg and (Edenburg, 

 strike the imagination of the traveller by the 

 constant display of the mirage, or extraordinary 

 refractions; but their greatest extent is more 

 to the East, between Czegled, Debreczin, 

 and Tittel % which has only two outlets, one 



* These vast steppes of Hungary are elevated only thirty 

 or forty toises above the level of the sea, which is more than 

 eighty leagues distant from them, (Wahlenberg, Flora Car- 

 path., p. 32.) BarpJj Podmanitzky, highly distinguished for 

 his knowledge of the physical sciences, paused the level of 

 these plains to be taken, on account of a canal projected be» 

 tween the Danube and the Theiss. He found the line of divi- 

 sion, or the convexity of the ground, which slopes on each 

 side toward the beds of the two rivers, thirteen toises above 

 the height of the Danube- Several leagues square are des- 

 titute of villages and tons. Those pastures, which constitute 

 the horizon, are called in the country Puszta. These plains, 

 intermingled with marshes and sandy tracts, are found on this 

 side of the Theiss between Czegled, Csaba, Komloss, and 

 Szarwass j beyond the Theiss, between Debreezin, Karczag, 



