HERBIVOKES: CAMELS AND LLAMAS. 37 



streams in their course, they frequently serve as the 

 highways of travel across the prairies. Though nat- 

 urally timid, the Buffalo, when wounded, is furious, 

 and dangerous to the hunter. It is estimated that 

 five hundred thousand of these animals are killed every 

 year ; many being slaughtered merely for sport, or per- 

 haps for the sake of the tongue alone, but most of them 

 for their skins, which make the well-known buffalo-robes. 



CAMELS AND LLAMAS. 



The Camel is a native of Central and Southern Asia, 

 and, from the earliest times, has rendered such impor- 



Fig. 69. Llama. 



taut services to the inhabitants of the East in carrying 

 merchandise across the deserts, that it has been called 

 the " Ship of the Desert." Its feet are fitted for trav- 

 elling in the sand, its strength and power of endurance 

 are very great, and it can live on the coarsest and most 

 scanty vegetation, and travel for days without drinking. 

 It can carry from five hundred to one thousand pounds, 

 and kneels to receive and to be relieved of its load. 



