THE LLAMA. 349 



tunate, in her efforts to introduce the llama and the 

 alpaca. 



Fortunately French naturalists are as persevering as 

 they are intelligent and zealous, so that disasters have 

 only made them more resolvedly bent on the accom- 

 plishment of their purpose. They argue that as the 

 llama and the alpaca have thriven in places so little 

 above the level of the sea as Paris and the Hague, 

 there is reason to expect a much greater success when 

 these mountain animals are introduced to congenial 

 localities among the Alps and the Pyrenees. 



It is with especial satisfaction that we note the en- 

 lightened zeal and long-suffering patience of the French 

 acclimatisers. They are not ashamed to acknowledge 

 mistakes and disappointments. 



These to us are as valuable as their successes ; and 

 as the moral from which we may be benefited has been 

 furnished at their expense, let us be thankful for the 

 frank avowals of discomfiture. As the raising of over- 

 sanguine expectations is sure to be mischievous, be- 

 cause inevitably followed by despondency and relaxa- 

 tion of effort, let us ingenuously confess that recent 

 anticipations as to the beneficial introduction into Eu- 

 rope of the llama and alpaca require to be modified. 

 The achievement appears to be neither so easy nor so 

 desirable as was imagined. 



Such, at least, is the impression made on us by the 

 perusal of ' The Wool-producing Animals of the Andes, 

 and their Acclimatisation in Europe/ by M. Emile Col- 

 paert, sent on a scientific mission to South America by 

 the Minister of Public Instruction. 



M. Colpaert declares that his personal knowledge, as 

 well as all information acquired from natives of Peru, 

 forbid him to share in the conviction that the ruminants 

 of the Cordilleras may speedily be seen grazing like 

 sheep in the pastures of Europe. He positively asserts, 

 even with regard to the llama, that all experience de- 

 monstrates that, both individually and in its progeny, it 



