350 ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES. 



degenerates when not inhabiting the heights of the 

 Andes. He assigns a mechanical reason for this de- 

 generacy, which may possibly be guarded against, with 

 the help of the dentist ! Like other ruminants, it has 

 incisor teeth only in the lower jaw. Of these it has 

 only four, which, by a wise provision of nature, are bent 

 slightly forward so as to enable it readily to seize the 

 almost stemless ycho, the nutritive sap of which is con- 

 fined to the root. The incisors being constantly rub- 

 bed against the hard soil are kept in such a condition 

 as suits the function of the mouth ; but when the llama 

 is fed on cut grass, or on lucerne, they become so elon- 

 gated as to rub off the skin of the upper lip. Being 

 unable to bring its jaws together without pain, the 

 creature ceases to eat enough ; what it does eat is not 

 rightly digested ; death ensues. 



M. Colpaert became acquainted with this important 

 fact in consequence of being on such friendly terms 

 with some of his suffering llamas that they allowed 

 him to examine their mouths without discharging in 

 his face the abominably offensive saliva which they spi 

 out when annoyed. The discovery of the woeful state 

 of their upper jaws convinced him that the only way to 

 save their lives was at once to despatch them to an 

 ^cAo-producing locality. 



We cannot doubt that in this fact, so specially noted 

 by M. Colpaert, we have a chief cause of that mortality 

 which has hitherto characterised every attempt to ac- 

 climatise the llama. He also points out that the intro- 

 duction of this creature into Europe would be a mis- 

 take, because its scanty wool is quite mediocre in 

 quality, and not to be compared to that of the Merino 

 sheep. He also depreciates its usefulness as a beast of 

 burden, maintaining that those writers are romancing 

 who speak as if it readily allowed itself to be mounted 

 by anybody; the fact being that it cannot carry a weight 

 much above a hundred pounds, and that the Indians, 

 when travelling, mount their young children only on 



