In northern Europe the Heaths which, covered by one sole form of vegetation, to the exclusion of all others, extend from the extremity of Jutland to the mouth of the Scheldt, may be regarded as true Steppes. They are, however, both hilly and of very inconsiderable extent when compared with the Llanos and Pampas of South America, or even with the Prairies on the Missouri[[5]] and Copper River, the resort of the shaggy Bison and the small Musk Ox.
The plains in the interior of Africa present a grander and more imposing spectacle. Like the wide expanse of the Pacific, they have remained unexplored until recent times. They are portions of a sea of sand, which towards the east separates fruitful regions from each other, or incloses them like islands, as the desert near the basaltic mountains of Harudsch[[6]], where, in the Oasis of Siwah, rich in date-trees, the ruins of the temple of Ammon indicate the venerable seat of early civilization. Neither dew nor rain refreshes these barren wastes, or unfolds the germs of vegetation within the glowing depths of the earth; for everywhere rising columns of hot air dissolve the vapours and disperse the passing clouds.
Wherever the desert approaches the Atlantic Ocean, as between Wadi Nun and the White Cape, the moist sea-air rushes in to fill the vacuum caused by these vertically ascending currents of air. The navigator, in steering towards the mouth of the river Gambia, through a sea thickly carpeted with weeds, infers by the sudden cessation of the tropical east wind[[7]], that he is near the far-spreading and radiating sandy desert.
Flocks of swift-looted ostriches and herds of gazelles wander over this boundless space. With the exception of the newly discovered group of Oases, rich in springs, whose verdant banks are frequented by nomadic tribes of Tibbos and Tuarycks[[8]], the whole of the African deserts may be regarded as uninhabitable by man. It is only periodically that the neighbouring civilized nations venture to traverse them. On tracks whose undeviating course was determined by commercial intercourse thousands of years ago, the long line of caravans passes from Tafilet to Timbuctoo, or from Mourzouk to Bornou; daring enterprises, the practicability of which depends on the existence of the camel, the ship of the desert[[9]], as it is termed in the ancient legends of the East.
These African plains cover an area which exceeds almost three times that of the neighbouring Mediterranean. They are situated partly within and partly near the tropics, a position on which depends their individual natural character. On the other hand, in the eastern portion of the old continent the same geognostic phenomenon is peculiar to the temperate zone.
On the mountainous range of Central Asia, between the Gold or Altai Mountain and the Kouen-lien[[10]], from the Chinese wall to the further side of the Celestial Mountains, and towards the Sea of Aral, over a space of several thousand miles, extend, if not the highest, certainly the largest Steppes in the world. I myself enjoyed an opportunity, full thirty years after my South American travels, of visiting that portion of the Steppes which is occupied by Kalmuck-Kirghis tribes, and is situated between the Don, the Volga, the Caspian Sea, and the Chinese Lake of Dsaisang, and which consequently extends over an area of nearly 2,800 geographical miles. The vegetation of the Asiatic Steppes, which are sometimes hilly and interspersed with pine forests, is in its groupings far more varied than that of the Llanos and the Pampas of Caracas and Buenos Ayres. The more beautiful portions of the plains, inhabited by Asiatic pastoral tribes, are adorned with lowly shrubs of luxuriant white-blossomed Rosaceæ, Crown Imperials (Fritillariæ), Cypripedeæ, and Tulips. As the torrid zone is in general distinguished by a tendency in the vegetable forms to become arborescent, so we also find, that some of the Asiatic Steppes of the temperate zone are characterized by the remarkable height to which flowering plants attain; as, for instance, Saussureæ, and other Synanthereæ; all siliquose plants, and particularly numerous species of Astragalus. On crossing the trackless portions of the herb-covered Steppes in the low carriages of the Tartars, it is necessary to stand upright in order to ascertain the direction to be pursued through the copse-like and closely crowded plants that bend under the wheels. Some of these Steppes are covered with grass; others with succulent, evergreen, articulated alkaline plants; while many are radiant with the effulgence of lichen-like tufts of salt, scattered irregularly over the clayey soil like newly fallen snow.
These Mongolian and Tartar Steppes, which are intersected by numerous mountain chains, separate the ancient and long-civilized races of Thibet and Hindostan from the rude nations of Northern Asia. They have also exerted a manifold influence on the changing destinies of mankind. They have inclined the current of population southward, impeded the intercourse of nations more than the Himalayas, or the Snowy Mountains of Sirinagur and Gorka, and placed permanent limits to the progress of civilization and refinement in a northerly direction.
History cannot, however, regard the plains of Central Asia under the character of obstructive barriers alone. They have frequently proved the means of spreading misery and devastation over the face of the earth. Some of the pastoral tribes inhabiting this Steppe,—the Mongols, Getæ, Alani, and Usüni,—have convulsed the world. If in the course of earlier ages, the dawn of civilization spread like the vivifying light of the sun from east to west; so in subsequent ages and from the same quarter, have barbarism and rudeness threatened to overcloud Europe.
A tawny tribe of herdsmen[[11]] of Tukiuish i. e., Turkish origin, the Hiongnu, dwelt in tents of skins on the elevated Steppe of Gobi. A portion of this race had been driven southward towards the interior of Asia, after continuing for a long time formidable to the Chinese power. This shock, (dislodgement of the tribes) was communicated uninterruptedly as far as the ancient land of the Fins, near the sources of the Ural.[[D]] From thence poured forth bands of Huns, Avars, Chasars, and a numerous admixture of Asiatic races. Warlike bodies of Huns first appeared on the Volga, next in Pannonia, then on the Marne and the banks of the Po, laying waste those richly cultivated tracts, where, since the age of Antenor, man’s creative art had piled monument on monument. Thus swept a pestilential breath from the Mongolian deserts over the fair Cisalpine soil, stifling the tender, long-cherished blossoms of art!
From the Salt-steppes of Asia,—from the European Heaths,—smiling in summer with their scarlet, honey-yielding flowers,—and from the barren deserts of Africa, we return to the plains of South America, the picture of which I have already begun to sketch in rude outline.