aveller fears the sound of the guitar from the neighbouring
apartment: in the bivouacs of the Orinoco, which are spread on the
open sand, or under the shade of a single tree, what you have to
dread is, the infernal cries which issue from the adjoining
forest."--(Vol. vi., 222-3.)

One of the most remarkable of the many remarkable features of Nature
in South America, is the prodigious plains which, under the name of
Llanos and Pampas, stretch from the shores of the Atlantic to the foot
of the Andes, over a space from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles
in breadth. Humboldt traversed them more than once in their full
extent, and has given the following striking description of their
remarkable peculiarities.

"In many geographical works, the savannahs of South America are
termed _prairies_. That word, however, seems not properly
applicable to plains of pasturage, often exclusively dry, though
covered with grass four or five feet high. The Llanos and Pampas
of South America are true _steppes_: they present a rich covering
of verdure during the rainy season; but in the months of drought,
the earth assumes the appearance of a desert. The turf is then
reduced to powder, the earth gapes in huge cracks; the crocodiles
and great serpents lie in a dormant state in the dried mud, till
the return of rains, and the rise of the waters in the great
rivers, which flood the vast expanse of level surface, awaken them
from their long slumber. These appearances are often exhibited
over an arid surface of fifty or sixty leagues square--every
where, in short, where the savannah is not traversed by any of the
great rivers. On the borders, on the other hand, of the streams,
and around the lakes, which in the dry season retain a little
brackish water, the traveller meets from time to time, even in the
most extreme drought, groves of Mauritia, a species of palm, the
leaves of which, spreading out like a fan, preserve amidst the
surrounding sterility a brilliant verdure.

"The steppes of Asia are all out of the region of the tropics, and
form in general the summit of very elevated plateaux. America also
presents, on the reverse of the mountains of Mexico, of Peru, and
of Quito, steppes of considerable extent. But the greatest
steppes, the Llanos of Cumana, of Caraccas, and of Meta, all
belong to the equinoctial zone, and are