ILLUSTRATIONS (26). RUINS OF THE AZTEK FORTRESS. 127 



case with the Guanaco. The alpaca does not bear a warm 

 climate as well as the lama. Since the introduction of the 

 more useful horse, mule, and ass (the latter of which exhibits 

 great animation and beauty in tropical regions), the lama and 

 alpaca have been less generally reared and employed as beasts 

 of burden in the mining districts. But their wool, which 

 varies so much in fineness, is still an important branch of 

 industry among the inhabitants of the mountains. In Chili 

 the wild and the tame guanaco are distinguished by special 

 names, the former being called "Luan" and the latter 

 " Chilihueque." The wide dissemination of the wild Guanacos 

 from the Peruvian Cordilleras to Tierra del Fuego, sometimes 

 in herds of 500 heads of cattle, has been facilitated by the 

 circumstance that these animals can swim with great facility 

 from island to island, and are not therefore impeded in their 

 passage across the Patagonian channels or fiords.* 



South of the river Gyla, which together with the Rio 

 Colorado pours itself into the Californian Gulf (Mar de Cortes), 

 lie in the midst of the dreary steppe the mysterious ruins 

 of the Aztek Palace, called by the Spaniards " las Casas 

 Grandes." When, about the year 1160, the Azteks first 

 appeared in Anahuac, having migrated from the unknown 

 land of Aztlan, they remained for a time on the borders of 

 the Gyla river. The Franciscan monks, Garces and Font, 

 who saw the " Casas Grandes " in 1773, are the last travellers 

 who have visited these remains. According to their state- 

 ment, the ruins extended over an area exceeding sixteen square 

 miles. The whole plain was covered with the broken frag- 

 ments of ingeniously painted earthenware vessels. The 

 principal palace, if the word can be applied to a house 

 formed of uuburnt clay, is 447 feet in length and 277 feet in 

 breadth, f 



The Taye of California, a delineation of which is given 

 by the Padre Venegas, appears to differ but inconsiderably 

 from the Oris musimon of the Old Continent. The same 

 animal has also been seen in the Stony Mountains near 

 the source of the River of Peace, and differs entirely from 



* See the pleasing descriptions in Darwin's Journal, 1845, p. 66. 



f See a rare work printed at Mexico, in 1792, and entitled Cronica 

 serafica y Apostolica del Colegio de Propaganda Fide de la Sanza. 

 Cruz de Queretaro, por Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita. 



