133 MAMMALIA ORDER VLUNGULATA. 



from camels wlien the district known as Takla Makan was "buried in a great 

 sandstorm some centuries ago. Tradition relates that no human beings 

 survived, but it is likely enough that some of the camels and horses did so, 

 and that this was the origin of the wild camels and ponies that are found in 

 this district." 



Camels have "been successfully introduced into North America ; and for 

 some years, according to a writer in The Asian newspaper, have been largely 

 employed as a means of transport in South Australia and Queensland, while 

 recently the Swan River colonists have followed the example there set them; 

 a large number of superior Rajputana camels, which had been marched down 

 from Bikanir to Calcutta, having been shipped to Western Australia to be 

 used in carrying supplies from Perth to the newly discovered gold fields at 

 Coolgardie. The utility of the camel being thoroughly recognised in the 

 Antipodes, the fact that an agitation against the animal is being raised in 

 Queensland is rather a surprise. " Such, however, is the case, as a petition 

 was recently presented by the residents of the Charleville district to the 

 Governor of Queensland, praying that something should be done to prevent 

 the introduction of camels into the colony. In it the petitioners pointed 

 out the urgent need that some constitutional means should be adopted to 

 prevent an imminent and dangerous invasion of Western Queensland by 

 camels, as their employment would tend to deprive the present carriers of 

 their means of livelihood. It was stated that the rates of carriage were low, 

 the teams plentiful, and that the carriers were willing to travel on all roads, 

 while the low standard of living among the camel-drivers must result in loss 

 of trade to the district. It was further said that many of the Western 

 carriers were settlers on the land, and the colony would suffer if such a class 

 of men were forced to emigrate ; that the value of the Western lands would 

 be depreciated, and the welfare of the community injuriously affected. In 

 reply the Premier, to whom the petition was forwarded by the Governor, 

 expressed the opinion that the agitation against the camels was rather hasty. 

 The cause of their presence in the colony was the drought in the South- 

 Western districts. It was impossible for teams to travel at all times, and as 

 the Warrego Rabbit Board could not get their netting brought by the ordi- 

 nary methods, an officer was sent to South Australia, and the required 

 quantity of netting carried to its destination by camels. Then a squatter 

 in the district, whose wool could not be taken away by the carriers in con- 

 sequence of the want of water on the route to be travelled, had had it for- 

 warded by the camels to Charleville. The forty camels carried altogether 

 eighty bales of wool two bales to each animal or just about the quantity 

 that is sometimes taken by one team of bullocks." 



Although the name llama properly belongs only to the domesticated forms, it 

 is commonly applied to all the South American representatives of the family, 

 which differ from the camels by their greatly inferior size and lighter build, 

 the want of any hump, the longer and more pointed ears, the short and bushy 

 tail, the narrower feet, with more distinctly separated toes, and the long and 

 woolly hair. They have two teeth less than the camels, owing to the upper 

 premolars in the adult being reduced from three to two pairs. Of the two 

 wild species, the vicuna (Lama vicuna) is the smaller and more lightly-built 

 animal of the two, and is restricted to the high Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and 

 part of Bolovia, where it associates in large herds in th3 coldest and most 

 inhospitable districts. On the other hand, the guanaco (L. guanacus) ranges 

 from the Peruvian Andes through the open pampas of Argentina to Pata- 



