TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 
On the Alpaca. By Mr. W. Danson. 
Since the meeting at Birmingham, about thirty of these interesting 
animals had at different times been imported into Liverpool, and upon 
the present occasion four of the animals were exhibited in the court- 
yard of the college at Glasgow, and others at the neighbouring Zoolo- 
gical Gardens. The Alpaca is remarkable for having extraordinary 
long wool, samples of which were shown, the staples measuring from 
twenty to twenty-four inches in length, and of various colours, some 
pure white, that take good dyes. This wool is naturally free from 
grease, in which respect it differs materially from that of the sheep, 
a circumstance attributable to its not perspiring through the skin, and 
consequently not requiring the artificial protection of smearing with 
tar and other substances, injurious to the wool as far as the manufac- 
turer is concerned ; and in the shearing the animal requires no washing 
preparatory to that operation. 
Mr. Danson particularly pointed out the hardy eharacter of the 
Alpaca from the circumstance of its flourishing immediately under the 
line of perpetual snow in the mountains of the Andes (Peru); anda 
not less singular or valuable fact, that of their peculiar coat of silky 
wool, proving a complete protection against an atmosphere at all times 
excessively humid, and against the deluging rain that continues to fall 
upwards of four months in the year, rendering them, in his opinion, well 
suited to the Grampian, and other mountainous districts of Scotland. 
The animal is not only capable of undergoing great fatigue, but like- 
wise of living on mountain herbage, little better than withered grass, 
and in times of scarcity has been sustained several days without water, 
taking only a handful of maize. The flesh is considered equal to 
venison, being commonly eaten by the Peruvians, who state the 
slaughter of the animals for food to be equal to four millions annually. 
The importations of the Alpaca wool, Mr. Danson states to be in 1839 
one million pounds, and within the last year to have increased to 
three millions. 
On the Subject of a Paper on the Structure of Whales, read at the 
Birmingham Meeting. By G. T. Fox, Esq. 
The Section of Natural History were informed that the letter stated 
to have been written by the Bishop of Durham*, was a fabrication of 
the individual from whom Mr. Fox had received it as a genuine docu- 
ment, and that no such original letter exists. 
On the Structure of Fishes, so far as the analogies can be traced 
between the Limbs of the Mammals and the Fins of Fishes. By 
Dr. Macvonatp, F.R.S.E., &c. 
It has hitherto been generally considered that the pectoral fin of the 
fish is the analogue of the wing of the bird, or anterior extremity of 
* See Reports of Association for 1839, p. 89. 
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