Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 67 of 406 - First - Home
These Sand-Winds
Augment The Suffocating Heat Of The Air.
Every grain of quartz, hotter
than the surrounding air, radiates heat in every direction; and it is
difficult to observe the temperature of the atmosphere, owing to these
particles of sand striking against the bulb of the thermometer.
All
around us the plains seemed to ascend to the sky, and the vast and
profound solitude appeared like an ocean covered with sea-weed.
According to the unequal mass of vapours diffused through the
atmosphere, and the variable decrement in the temperature of the
different strata of air, the horizon in some parts was clear and
distinct; in other parts it appeared undulating, sinuous, and as if
striped. The earth there was confounded with the sky. Through the dry
mist and strata of vapour the trunks of palm-trees were seen from
afar, stripped of their foliage and their verdant summits, and looking
like the masts of a ship descried upon the horizon.
There is something awful, as well as sad and gloomy, in the uniform
aspect of these steppes. Everything seems motionless; scarcely does a
small cloud, passing across the zenith, and denoting the approach of
the rainy season, cast its shadow on the earth. I know not whether the
first aspect of the Llanos excite less astonishment than that of the
chain of the Andes. Mountainous countries, whatever may be the
absolute elevation of the highest summits, have an analogous
physiognomy; but we accustom ourselves with difficulty to the view of
the Llanos of Venezuela and Casanare, to that of the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres and of Chaco, which recal to mind incessantly, and during
journeys of twenty or thirty days, the smooth surface of the ocean. I
had seen the plains or llanos of La Mancha in Spain, and the heaths
(ericeta) that extend from the extremity of Jutland, through Luneburg
and Westphalia, to Belgium. These last are really steppes, and, during
several ages, only small portions of them have yielded to cultivation;
but the plains of the west and north of Europe present only a feeble
image of the immense llanos of South America. It is in the south-east
of our continent, in Hungary, between the Danube and the Theiss; in
Russia, between the Borysthenes, the Don, and the Volga, that we find
those vast pastures, which seem to have been levelled by a long abode
of the waters, and which meet the horizon on every side. The plains of
Hungary, where I traversed them on the frontiers of Germany, between
Presburg and Oedenburg, strike the imagination of the traveller by the
constant mirage; but their greatest extent is more to the east,
between Czegled, Debreczin, and Tittel. There they present the
appearance of a vast ocean of verdure, having only two outlets, one
near Gran and Waitzen, the other between Belgrade and Widdin.
The different quarters of the world have been supposed to be
characterized by the remark, that Europe has its heaths, Asia its
steppes, Africa its deserts, and America its savannahs; but by this
distinction, contrasts are established that are not founded either on
the nature of things, or the genius of languages.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 406
Words from 34545 to 35074
of 211397
