IMMENSE EXTENT OE THE PAMEAS. 
97 
leagues twenty to a degree. The part running from north 
to south is almost double that which stretches from east to 
west, between the Lower Orinoco and the littoral chain of 
Caracas. The Pampas on the north and north-west of 
Buenos Ayres, between this city and Cordova, Jujuy, and 
the Tucuman, are of nearly the same extent as the Llanos ; 
but the Pampas stretch still farther on to the length of 18° 
southward ; and the land they occupy is so vast, that they 
produce palm-trees at one of their extremities, while the 
other, equally low aud level, is covered with eternal frost. 
lhe Llanos of America, where they extend in the direc- 
J;: on “ a Parallel of the equator, are three-fourths narrower 
them the great desert of Africa. This cncumstance is very 
important in a region where the winds constantly blow from 
east to west. The farther the plains stretch in this direc- 
tion the more ardent is their climate. The great ocean of 
sand m Africa communicates by Yemen* with Gedrosia and 
iseloochistan, as far as the right bank of the Indus. It is 
rom the eflect of winds that have passed over the deserts 
situated to the east, that the little basin of the Eed Sea, 
surrounded by _ plains which send forth from all sides 
radiant caloric, is one of the hottest regions of the globe. 
Ihe unfortunate captain Tuckey relates,! that the centi- 
grade thermometer keeps there generally in the night at 
ol , aud by day from 40° to 44°. We shall soon see that, 
even in the westernmost part of the steppes of Caracas, we 
seldom found the temperature of the air, in the shade, 
above 37 . ’ 
* T e Cannot be , sensed that the Arabic should be richer than any 
tiier language of the East in words expressing the ideas of desert, unin- 
habned plains and plains covered with gramina. 1 could give a list of 
thirty-five ot these words, which the Arabian authors employ without 
always distinguishing them by the shades of meaning which each separate 
, , „® x P r ® s ? as - Makadh and kadh indicate, in preference, plains ; 
j a ' a table -land; kafr, mikfar , smlis, mahk , and habaucer , a naked 
aesert, covered with sand and gravel ; tanufah, a steppe. Zahra means 
nee a naked desert and a savannah. The word steppe, or step, is 
„ , an< ^ no,: Tartarian. In the Turco-Tartar dialect a heath is 
r . , ot tschol. The word gobi, which Europeans have cor- 
i ln 0 c ®"h signifies in the Mongol tongue a naked desert. It is 
] ■ en *■“ llle sc/ia-mo or khan-hai of the Chinese. A steppe, o» 
* + v° Ver , ec * w ‘th herbs, is in Mongol, kuda/i ; in Chinese, kouan" 
T Expedition to explore the river Zahir, 1818. 
*OL. II. H 
