CHAPTER VIII. 



THE WILD ANIMALS OF THE CORDILLERAS. 



THE LLAMA. 



T is on the above-mentioned bleak table-land that the 

 llama, with its kindred — the alpaca, vicuna, and 

 huanucu — are found. The historian of the conquest 

 calls them the sheep of Peru, l^ut the llama is more allied in 

 its characteristics to the camel of the desert. In outward 

 form, except that it has no hump on its back ; in the structure 

 and cellular apparatus of the stomach, which enable it to ab- 

 stain for a long time from water ; in the expression of its large 

 full eye ; in the mobility and division of the upper lip ; in its 

 fissured nostrils ; in the nature of its teeth ; and in its long 

 woolly clothing and slender neck, — the llama has a strong re- 

 semblance to the camel of the deserts of Arabia. While the 

 camel's feet, however, are formed for passing over the burning 

 sands or level ground, and are therefore broad and cushioned, 

 those of the llama, to enable it to climb the ruo^ored craos of 

 the Cordilleras, are slender, elastic, and claw-tipped. The 

 llama has indeed been rightly called the camel of the moun- 



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