CAMELS — LLAMAS. 139 



them by finding the natives of the southern part of eastern Tierra del Fiiego, well supplied with Guanaco 

 skins, and with the bones of these animals made into spear-heads. Where they got the Guanaco 

 skins was a question not easy to answer. 'Was there a passage to the northward, by which they 

 coidd trade with the people li\-ing there ? or wore there Guanacoes iu the southern part of Tierra 

 del Fuego ? Both the bones and skins seemed abundant ; but the people made signs that they 

 came from the eastward ; none pointed towards the north. One native showed how they ran, 

 and their shaj)e, and how they were killed, also the kind of noise they made;* and not long 

 after, on landing at Windhond Bay on Navarin Island, they saw four fine Guanacoes feeding 

 close to the water. They appeared to be much larger than those they had seen on the Patagonian 

 coast, their bodies being far heavier, and their tails longer and more bushy.f They killed one, 

 but do not seem to have examined it or preserved it in order to see whether it was not a new 

 species, which it might A-ery well be, considering the difference in the conditions of life between 

 the dry desert plains of Patagonia and the rain}- and snowy climate of Tierra del Fuego. 



The Alpaca has been introduced into Australia in spite of almost insuperable obstacles in getting 

 them out of Peru and transferred to Australia. The greatest difficulty, however, has, I fear, yet 

 to be overcome, naraeh', that of naturalizing an animal in a countiy and climate the conditions of 

 which are not suited to his constitution. 



The Vicuna is the rarest, and frequents the most lofty ridges of the Cordilleras, avoiding, 

 however, the naked rocky summits, for its hooves are soft and tender and suited only to the springy 

 turf of the upland pastures. 



Remains of two species of another remarkable extinct genus, the Macrauchenia Patachonica 

 and M. Boliviensis; which were at first thought to have a certain amount of affinity to the Guanaco, 

 have also been found in the country now inhabited by that animal. Its supj)osed affinity, however, 

 is now considered by jjalajontologists to be an error. According to Burmeister the animal was a 

 Pachyderm, and the connexion with the Camels is only analogical, or distant. 



Oxen. (Bovid.e.) (Map 37.) The distribution of Oxen furnishes a noteworthy instance of 

 the nde that two species of powerful mammals in the same group are rarely found in the same 

 district. In the Bovine animals this rule seems without exception. I have thus been able, in 

 the map of this family, to define tolerably distinctlj^ by different colours, the limits of each 

 different species — (under deduction always of the Domestic Ox and its varieties, which is now 

 found over the whole world). 



The different recognised species of cattle and their ranges are the following : — 



1st Section. Musk Ox. (Ovibos.) (Maps £6 and 37.) 



The Musk-ox, is now confined to MehdUe's Island, and the neighbouring count rj' in the Arctic 

 regions, and the plains bordering on Hudson's Baj', but not reaching its shores. Hearne observed 

 the tracks of one near Fort Churchill, in 59° N. Lit., and many in lat. 61°. They are rarely to be 

 seen in any number further to the south than lat. 67° N. Although so completely an Arctic animal, 

 it is restricted to North America, and does not extend to Greenland, notwithstanding that coimtry 

 is so near its natural habitat. At the same time it is to be noted, that although not an inhabitant 



* FiTZRoy's "Voyages of the Beagle," April, 1830, vol. i. p. 430. 

 t Op. cit. p. 439. 



