334 FROM THE CAPITAL OF THE BANNAT, 
formerly held the Diets and great assemblies of 
the people ; and here they elected the antient 
sovereigns of Hungary. Upon those occasions, 
the plain was covered with a camp, containing 
from eighty to a hundred thousand tents. 
May 9. — We came from Ketschemet to Pest, 
a distance about equal to thirty-six English 
miles : it is divided into six posts, or stations. 
The first part of this distance, although well 
cultivated in some places, is flat and sandy, as 
far as Inares, the third post from Ketschemet; 
resembling the steppes of Russia, not only in 
its aspect, but also with regard to its plants 
and animals. We collected some rare plants 
in this sandy district; and often noticed an 
animal like a squirrel, burrowing in the sand, 
like the Suslic of the South of Russia. Numbers 
of these little quadrupeds appeared running 
into their burrows. They are of the Marmot 
kind; resembhng that animal in their mode 
of life'. These plains would be, in fact, a con- 
tinuation of the Russian steppes, extending from 
the Danube not only to the country south of 
(I) Perhaps the Arctomys Citillus, mentioned by Dr. Toimson 
^Travels in Hung. c. 4.) ; but differing from the Silslic. Describing 
the same plain, Born says that it is covered with the Glarea LinJicei, 
mixed with small broken shells. 
