GUANACOS: LIVING AND DYING 115 



all the flesh of the dead animals. The skins fell to the 

 priests. 



The guanaco, which is smaller than the llama, and 

 larger than the vicuna, wanders over the whole of South 

 America, aiid is to be met with on peaks of the Andes 

 more than twenty thousand feet high, as well as in the 

 bare lands of southern Patagonia, where he is most 

 numerous. He is about four feet high from the shoulder, 

 and seven or eight feet in length, and his wool is of a 

 pale reddish colour and very thick. It is shortest and 

 reddest on the top, and is exactly suited to the cold 

 bare places where the guanaco loves to roam. Like the 

 llamas, they are generally to be found several together, 

 but they are very cautious, and never attempt to eat the 

 smallest meal without placing a scout to give warning 

 of the approach of an enemy. If one is seen — or smelt 

 — for the scent of the guanaco is extraordinarily keen, 

 the scout utters a peculiar penetrating cry, something 

 like the bell of a deer, and the flock instantly make off 

 to a place of safety. But if the enemy to be dreaded is 

 a puma, his scent is sharper and his feet swifter than 

 those of a guanaco, and many are the bodies found lying 

 on the pampas, with dislocated necks. 



Like many shy people, guanacos are very curious, and, 

 as has happened before now, their curiosity often ends 

 in their undoing. Sometimes a band will unite to ex- 

 plore some special district, and when they have dis- 

 covered what they are looking for, they will wheel 

 round as cleverly as a troop of soldiers, and return 

 whence they came in a straight line. They are all 

 good swimmers, and of very accommodating habits ; if 

 no grass is to be had, they can go without for a sur- 

 prising length of time, and if fresh water cannot be got, 

 they content themselves with salt. They are lively and 

 excitable, and may be seen giving vent to their feelings 

 just as human beings do, by making strange noises, and 

 jumping about. 



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