MISGIVINGS. 209 soil, caused végétation to assume a character which was truly magnifîcent Dick Sands could not overcome a certain sensé of mystification. Hcre they were, as Harris told them, in the région of the pampas, a word which he knew in the Quichna dialect signifies " a plain ;" but he had always rcad that thèse plains were characterized by a deficiency alike of water, of trecs, and* rocks ; he had always understood that during the rainy season, thistles spring up in great abun- dance and grow until they form thickets that are well-nigh impénétrable ; he had imagined that the few dwarf trees and prickly shrubs that exist during the summer only stamp the gênerai scène with an aspect of yet more thorough bareness and désolation. But how difiercnt was everything to ail this ! The forest never ceased to stretch away înterminably to the horizon. There were no tokens of the rough nakedness that he had expected. Dick seemed to be drîven to the conclusion that Harris was right in describing this plateau of Atacama, which he had for his part most firmly believed to be a vast désert between the Andes and the Pacific, as a région that was quite excep- tional in its natural features. It was not in Dîck's character to keep his reflcctions to hîmself. In the course of the morning he expressed his extrême surprise at finding the pampas answer so little to his preconceived ideas.
- ' Hâve I not understood correctly," he said, " that the
pampas is similar to the North American savannahs, only less marshy ?" Harris replied that such was indeed a correct description of the pampas of Rio Colorado, and the Uanos of Venezuela and the Orinoco.
- But," he continucd, " I own I am as much astonished
as yourself at the character of this région ; I hâve never crosscd the plateau before,and I must confess it is altogether différent to what you find beyond the Andes towards the Atlantic" "You don't mean that we aregoîng to cross the Andes?" said Dick, in sudden alarm.
