ALPACA. 



ALPACA. 



He further remarks that the flesh of these 

 animals was jerked and ma'fle into cusharqui, 

 or, as the Spaniards call it, cecina, which kept 

 good for a considerable time, and was in very 

 general request. " Both species," he says, 

 " are accustomed to a cold climate, and thrive best 

 in the highlands. Often does it happen that 

 they are covered with snow and sparkling with 

 icicles, and yet healthy and contented." Speak- 

 ing of the vicunas, the same author observes 

 that they are wild and timid, inhabiting the 

 punas, or snowy cliffs, and are affected by 

 neither rain or snow. To this he adds that 

 they are gregarious, extremely fleet, and that 

 on meeting a traveller, or beast of the forest, 

 they fly away, collecting and driving their 

 young before them. He further affirms that 

 the vicuna wool is as soft as silk, made into 

 fine stuffs, and requires no dyeing ; adding, 

 that many persons also considered it medici- 

 nally useful in cases of pains in the loins and 

 other parts of the body, in consequence of 

 which they had mattresses made of it. 



Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, a native of Peru, 

 was the next Spaniard of note who described 

 th- ('unnro.i (If, la titrra, and subjoined are his 

 l- i aili!iu r remarks: -The domestic ai.nnals 

 which CJod was pleased to l>c.>tow on the In- 

 ' "irr.'nial to their character and like 

 them in disposition, are so tractable that a 

 child may guide them, more particularly those 

 accustomed to bear burdens. Generally they 

 are called llamas, and the keeper llama-michec. 

 As a distinction, the larger kind is called hu- 

 unucu-llama, owing to its resembling the wild 

 one of that name, from which it only differs in 

 colour, the tame breeds being seen of all hues, 

 whereas the wild ones have only one, and that 

 is a light brown. The height of the domestic 

 is that of a deer, and to no animal can 

 they be likened so justly as the camel, except- 

 ing that they are smaller and have no hunch 

 on the back. The skin was anciently steeped 

 in tallow, in order to prepare it, after which 

 the Indians used it for shoes, but the leather 

 not being tanned, they were obliged to go bare- 

 footed in rainy weather. Of it the Spaniards 

 now make bridles, girths, and cruppers for 

 saddles. The llama formerly served to bear 

 loads from Cusco to the mines of Potosi, in 

 droves of 800 or 1000, each animal carrying 

 three or four arrobas. The paco was chiefly 

 valued for its flesh, but more especially for its 

 wool, long, but excellent, of which the natives 

 made cloths, and gave to them beautiful and 

 never-fading colours." 



The Peruvian sheep are peculiar to that 

 part of South America, bordering on the Pa- 

 cific, which extends from the equator beyond 

 the tropic of Capricorn, that long and enor- 

 mous range of mountains known as the Andes 

 Cordilleras. Along this massive pile every 

 imaginable degree of temperature may be 

 found in successive gradation. Below stretches 

 a narrow strip of land, washed by the sea, 

 where the heat is intense and it never rains, 

 but where, owing to heavy dews and filtration 

 from the mountains, vegetation is luxuriant 

 and an eternal spring reigns. As one ascends, 

 the aspect of the country changes, and new 

 plants appear; but no sooner are the middle 



summits gained, and the sun has lost his 

 power, than those cold and icy regions rise up, 

 one above the other, called by the natives 

 punas, which are again crowned with rocky 

 crests, broken by deep ravines and rugged 

 chasms, and presenting a wilderness of crags 

 and cliffs never trodden by the human footstep, 

 and never darkened, except by a passing 

 cloud, or the eagle's wing. In this land of mist 

 and snow, or rather in the hollows which sur- 

 round it, feed the guanaco and vicuna, at an 

 elevation of 12,000 or 14,000 feet above the 

 level of the sea; while in the lower regions, 

 stretching immediately under the snowy belt, 

 and where the Indian fixes his abode at a' 

 height from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, may be seen 

 pasturing those flocks of llamas and alpacas 

 which constitute his delight, and at the same 

 time the principal part of his property. 



Here, amidst broken and precipitous peaks, 

 on the parapets and projecting ledges, slightly 

 covered with earth, or in the valleys formed 

 by the mountain ridges, like the Pyrenean 

 chamois, the llama and alpaca pick up a pre- 

 carious subsistence from the mosses, lichens, 

 tender shrubs, and u'nissy plants which make 

 their apppearance as the snow recedes; or, 

 !ulur_' lower lo\vn, revel in the pajonales, 

 or, as they are called in some parts of the 

 country, ic'hiuil'.s natural meadows of the tc/m 

 plant, the favourite haunts of the tame and 

 wild kinds. Thus the hand of man never pre- 

 pares food for either species both readily find 

 it on their native mountains. Besides the ex- 

 tremes of cold, these animals have equally to 

 endure the severities of a damp atmosphere, 

 for while below it seldom rains, in the summer 

 months, when evaporation from the sea is 

 abundant, clouds collect, and being driven 

 over the lower valleys by strong winds from 

 the south and west, and condensed by the cold, 

 burst on the highlands, where the rain falls in 

 torrents, amidst the most awful thunder and 

 lightning. 



However bleak and damp the situation, little 

 does it matter for an animal requiring neither 

 fold nor .manger, and living in wild and deso- 

 late places, where the tender is often obliged 

 to collect the dung of his flock to serve as fuel 

 for himself. Although delicate in appearance, 

 the alpaca is, perhaps, one of the hardiest ani- 

 mals of the creation. His abstinence has 

 already been noticed. Nature has provided 

 him with a thick skin and a warm fleece, and 

 as he never perspires, like the ordinary sheep, 

 he is not so susceptible of cold. There is, 

 therefore, no necessity to smear his coat with 

 tar and butter, as the farmers are obliged to 

 do with their flocks in Scotland, a process 

 which, besides being troublesome and expen- 

 sive, injures the wool, as it is no longer fit to 

 make into white goods, nor will it take light 

 and bright colours. In the severest winter the 

 alpaca asks no extra care, and his teeth being 

 well adapted to crop the rushes and coarse 

 grass with which our moors abound, he will 

 be satisfied with the refuse left upon them. In 

 a word, he would live where sheep must be in 

 danger of starving. 



The importations of sheep's wool from Peru 

 into Liverpool, principally alpaca, have stead- 



T5 



