The New Student's Reference Work/Pampas

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Pam′pas, properly the large, treeless plains of the Argentine Republic in South America. They rise in terraces from the coast to the foot of the Cordilleras, and extend about 2,000 miles long by 500 miles broad. The northeastern portion is very fertile and the pampas are used almost exclusively for grazing purposes, but the rest is barren and dry, abounding in strips of desert, the soil being of sandy clay. The level districts of Peru, 180,000 square miles in extent and covered by trees, are also called pampas.