ioo6 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



coarser, and a finer and shorter; the former being termed by the Peruvians hanaska, 

 and the latter kumbi. The Incas dyed both kinds with bright and lasting colors, 

 and wove them into cloth and blankets; and alpaca wool has been introduced into 

 England, the late Sir Titus Salt having established mills for its manufacture into 

 cloth at Bradford. 



Attempts have also been made to acclimatize the alpaca in Europe 

 Acchmati- & ^ Australia. A large herd was imported by a late Earl of Derby 

 and established at Knowsley, and it was thought that these animals 

 might be successfully introduced into the Highlands of Scotland; but if the attempt 

 was ever made, it had no permanent results. In Australia, after great difficulties in 

 getting permission from the Peruvian and Bolivian Governments for the export of 

 such a large number, three hundred head were introduced, but in five years these had 

 dwindled down to a dozen, and the experiment does not appear to have been re- 

 peated. Probably one of the great difficulties to be contended with in the success- 

 ful introduction of llamas into other countries would be to find a locality where they 

 could be left almost to themselves, and yet where they would be safe. The climate 

 of Britain is doubtless far to damp for them, and in this respect parts of Australia 

 would be much more suitable. 



The alpaca goes with young eleven months, and produces but one at a birth. 

 Its flesh is as excellent as that of the llama. 



EXTINCT CAMEL-LJKB UNGULATES 



It has already been mentioned that extinct camels occur in India and Northern 

 Africa, while fossil species of llamas some as large as camels are found in East- 

 ern South America. In addition to these, the Pliocene and Miocene formations of 

 the United States have, however, yielded the remains of a number of extinct genera 

 of camel-like Ungulates, from which both camels and llamas have probably been 

 derived; and as no such forms have hitherto been discovered in Europe, we may 

 probably regard North America as the original home of the family, from which the 

 modern representatives have migrated southward across the Isthmus of Darien, and 

 westward over Behring Strait into Asia. In the older Tertiary formations of Pata- 

 gonia the group is unknown. 



Some of these North- American Pliocene types, like Procamelus, were not unlike 

 existing members of the family, but had four premolar teeth in each jaw. In the 

 Miocene we come to still more generalized forms, having the typical number of 

 forty-four teeth (that is to say, with three pairs of incisors in each jaw), while one 

 kind (Poebrotkerium) , which was no larger than .a fox, had the main metacarpal 

 and metatarsal bones of the feet separate, and also showed traces of the bones of the 

 lateral toes. From this form a transition can be traced to others with four com- 

 plete toes and bunodont* molar teeth; and we thus reach the important conclusion 

 that camels and llamas were derived from pig-like animals quite independently of 

 the true Ruminants. 



*The meaning of this term is explained in the next chapter. 



