296 



We have become better acquainted with the de- 

 serts in the interior of Africa, so long and so 

 vaguely confounded together under the name of 

 desert of Sahara (Zahra) ; it has been observed, 

 that in this continent, toward the East, savan- 

 nahs and pastures are found, as in Arabia, set 

 in the midst of naked, and barren tracts. It is 

 these last, these deserts covered with gravel, and 

 destitute of plants, that are almost entirely 

 wanting in the New World. I saw them only 

 in the low part of Peru, between Amotape and 

 Coquimbo, on the borders of the South-Sea. 

 These are called by the Spaniards not Llanos, 

 but the Desiertos of Sechura and Atacamez. This 

 solitary tract is not broad, but four hundred and 

 forty leagues long. The rock pierces every 

 where through the quicksands. No drop of 

 rain ever falls on it ; and, like the desert of Sa- 

 hara, to the North of Tombuctoo, the Peruvian 

 desert affords, near Huaura, a rich mine of native 

 salt. Every where else, in the New World, 

 there are plains, desert because not inhabited, 

 but no real deserts *. 



The same phenomena are repeated in the most 



the plains contain gypsum and sal gem. See my Mexican 

 Atlas, PI. 1. 



* We are almost tempted, however, to call that vast and 

 sandy table-laud of Brazil, the Campos dos Parecis, which gives 

 birth to the rivers Tapajos, Paraguay, and Madeira, and which 

 reaches the summit of the highest mountains, a desert. Al- 

 most destitute of vegetation, it reminds us of Gobi in Mungolia* 



