PAIXPAS (in the Quichna tongue, a "valley" or "plain"), is a term employed in a general sense as a designation of southern American plains, in contra distinction to the "prairies" of North America, and in this sense it is frequently employed by geographers. It is also used in Peril as a general designation of tracts of level Lind either on tile coast or among the maintains, and in this sense occurs as a component or many proper names, being then transformed into bamba. The chief pampas in Peru are those of the Sacra mento. But in its more special and proper signification, the word pampas is given to Ihe immense and partly undulating plains bounded by the Rio Negro of Patagonia, the La Plata ;nil Paraguay, and the base of the Cordilleras. These plains during the wet sea son afford abundant pastures to the many herds of wild oxen and horses which roam over them, but they become rapidly parched under the burning heat of the sun, except in the low-lying tracts, or along the banks of rivers. The most fertile of the pampas lie west wards towards the Cordilleras. From the rapid alternation of vigorous growth with
parching drought. the growth of trees is impossible, and their place is accordingly sup. plied by sp use• groups of stunted shrubs. The soil, which is in general prior, is a dilu \dunk composed of sandy clay, and abounds in the bones of extinct mammals. Strips of waterless desert, known as traresias, stretch across the pampas, these travesias arc desti tute of all vegetation with the exception of a few bushes, and are markedly distinct in geological character. The soil of the pampas is more or less impregnated with salt, and saltpeter abounds in many places. The wild animals of the pampas are horses, oxen' (both introduced by the Spaniards), nandous, and guanacos. The skins of the horses and oxen. and the flesh of the latter, form a most important item in the trade of this region. The half-white inhabitants of the pampas arc called Gnachos (q.v.). The whole area of the pampas has been estimated at about 1,500.000 sq.miles.