HUNTING THE LLAMA. 115 



haj pen to be among the flock, these leap over the cords, ari'l are 

 followed by all the vicunnas. These gnanacoa are larger and more 

 corpulent, and are also called viscachas. 



'There is yet another animal of this kind called alpagnes (alpa- 

 cas,) having wool of extraordinary fineness; but their legs are 

 shorter, and their snouts contracted in such a manner, as to give 

 them some resemblance to the human countenance. 



"The Indians make several uses of these creatures; some of 

 which carry burdens of about an hundred weight. Their wooi 

 serves to make stuffs, cords, and sacks ; their bones are used fo< 

 the construction of weaver's utensils; and their dung is employei 

 as fuel for dressing meat and warming their huts."* 



The mode of killing the vigonias, described by Shelvocke, pre 

 vails in Chili and Peru at the present day. It is affirmed that 

 eighty thousand are thus killed every year solely for their wool, 

 and that the species does not appear to diminish,! Gregoire de 

 Bolivar says, that in his time the llamas were so numerous, that 

 four millions were killed every year for their flesh, and that three 

 hundred thousand were employed at the mines of Potosi. The 

 extraordinary multiplication of animal life in South America is 

 familiar to every reader : the pampas are covered with troops of 

 wild horses, and the oxen are slaughtered by hundreds for their 

 skins alone. In the Memoirs of General Miller, an Englishman in 

 the service of the republic of Peru, it is stated, that wood was 

 formerly so scarce and cattle so plentiful, that sheep were driven 

 into the furnaces of limekilns, in order to answer the purposes of 

 fuel ; and that a decree of the king of Spain, prohibiting this barba- 

 rous custom, is still preserved in the archives of Buenos Ayres. 



This extraordinary abundance of animal food, and the equal 

 fertility of many di.-tricts, where the finest fruits grow spontaneously, 

 and only require the trouble of being gathered, has had a marked 

 effect in retarding the improvement of the natives of South America. 

 They are neither a pastrmxl nor an agricultural people ; and thus. 



surrounded by partial civilization, they remain without any excite 



* 



* Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. x. p. 462. f Diet. Classique. 



