ndless!
They know that from the Delta of the Orinoco, crossing the
province of Vannos, and from thence by the shores of the Meta, the
Guaviare, and the Caguan, you may advance in the plains, at first
from east to west, then from north-east, to south-east, three
hundred and eighty leagues--a distance as great as from Tombuctoo
to the northern coast of Africa. They know, by the report of
travellers, that the Pampas of Buenos Ayres--which are also
Llanos, destitute of trees, covered with rich grass, filled with
cattle and wild horses--are equally extensive. They imagine,
according to the greater part of maps, that this huge continent
has but one chain of mountains, the Andes, which forms its western
boundary; and they form a vague idea of the boundless sea of
verdure, stretching the whole way from the foot of this gigantic
wall of rock, from the Orinoco and the Apure, to the Rio de la
Plata and the Straits of Magellan. Imagination itself can hardly
form an idea of the extent of these plains. The Llanos, from the
Caqueta to the Apure, and from thence to the Delta of the Orinoco,
contain 17,000 square marine leagues--a space nearly equal to the
area of France; that which stretches to the north and south is of
nearly double the extent, or considerably larger than the surface
of Germany; and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, which extend from
thence towards Cape Horn, are of such extent, that while one end
is shaded by the palm-trees of the tropics, the other, equally
flat, is charged with the snows of the antarctic circle."--(Vol.
vi. 52, 67.)

These prodigious plains have been overspread with the horses and
cattle of the Old World, which, originally introduced by the Spanish
settlers, have strayed from the enclosures of their masters, and
multiplied without end in the vast savannahs which nature had spread
out for their reception.

"It is impossible," says Humboldt, "to form an exact enumeration
of the cattle in the Pampas, or even to give an approximation to
it, so immensely have they augmented during the three centuries
which have elapsed since they were first introduced; but some idea
of their number may be formed from the following facts in regard
to such portions of these vast herds as are capable of being
counted. It is calculated that in the plains from the mouths of
the Orinoco to the lake