280 EFFECTS OF KEFR ACTION. Book II. 
from the European tarantula. They are found in the 
deserts and steppes from the Arkansas to California, as well 
as throughout a great part of Mexico ; and this insect, 
the very sight of which creates a disagreeable feeling, is 
with reason more feared than the rattlesnake. Its bite is 
perhaps less immediately dangerous, but its consequences 
are far more difficult of cure than those of the bite of 
the rattlesnake. During my travels in North America 
persons of my party were, on two occasions, bitten by 
rattlesnakes ; in both cases they drank brandy in large 
quantities as an antidote, and the danger passed without 
any subsequent inconvenience. One of our drivers, on the 
contrary, told me that his brother had lost an eye from 
the bite of a tarantula near the temple, and had subse- 
quently become idiotic. 
On the third day of our journey through the desert, 
towards evening, the refraction raised into the air, above 
the horizon, the picture of the heights on the other side of 
the Cimarron. This effect of the unequally-heated strata 
of air often produces strange phenomena on these plains. 
Objects which appear on the horizon are lengthened out to 
a gigantic size, and a buffalo-herd on the Arkansas looked 
like a group of trees. 
Soon after, we had in reality a view of the valley of the 
Cimarron. With the green pasture, but without either 
tree or shrub, enclosed on both sides by banks of sandstone 
and conglomerate, this slight depression presented a true 
oasis in the desert, between the greyish-brown barren heights 
of the plateau on either side. But the oasis itself is here 
only a milder form of desert nature. The river — if I may 
call it so — formed at the point where we reached it a small 
stagnant and brackish brook, running amongst reeds and 
rushes. On its bank, however, we found some springs of 
