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Show .. . 26 '• ;. : ·i•EP~ES; A~ U-D~iE1 TS . .. : ! image is 1o0P"~uted in the lower stratu~ of undulating vapor, we seem to !!l!~· hcforc ~s . !I' ~ho;pJe.s.s • .ocean.(8 ) J..,ike the ocean, the Steppe ::flu~ the nri.11d: '!it.J:l·. $~ :fui;liing of infinity; and thought, escaping from the vi~ib'le'ifnpressions of space, rises to contemplations of a higher order. Yet the aspect of the clear, transparent mirror of the ocean, wit.h its light, curling, gently foaming, sportive waves, cheers the heart like that of a friend; but the Steppe lies stretched before us dead and rigid, like ~he stony crust (4) of a desolated planet. In every zone nature presents the phenomena of these great plains: in each they have a peculiar physiognomy, determined by diversity of soil, by climate, and by elevation, above the level of the sea. In Northern Europe, the Heaths, which, covered with a single race of plants repelling all others, extend from the point of Jutland to the mouth of the Scheidt, may be regarded as true Steppes-but Steppes of small extent and hilly surface, if compared with the Llanos and Pampas of South America, or even with the Prairies of the Missouri (5) and the Barrens of the Coppermine river, where range countless herds of the shaggy buffalo and musk ox. A grander and severer aspect characterizes the plains of the interior of Africa. Like· the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, it is only in recent times that attempts have been made to explore them thoroughly. They are parts of a sea of sand, which, stretching eastward, separates fruitful regions from each other, or encloses them like islands; as where the Desert, near the basaltic mountains of HarlJ.dsh, (6) surrounds the Oasis of Siwah, rich in date-trees, and in which the ruins of the temple of Ammon mark the venerable site of an ancient civilization. Neither dew nor rain bathes these desolate plains, or develops on their glowing surface the germs of vegetable life; for heated columns of air, everywhere ascending, dissolve the vapors, and disperse each swiftly vanishing cloud. Where the Desert approaches the Atlantic Ocean, as between the Wadi Nun and Cape Blanco, the moist sea air pours in to supply the void left by these upward currents. The mariner, steering towards the mouth of the Gambia through a sea covered with weed, when suddenly deserted by the east trade wind of the tropics, (7) infers |