THE ALPACA AND VICUNA 29 



into Liverpool alone. It is particularly valuable from its being 

 able to be woven with common wool, silk, or cotton, into a 

 variety of equally beautiful and durable fabrics ; so that, in spite 

 of a continual increase of the importation, its price has trebled 

 since 1840. 



It is not wonderful that frequent attempts have been made 

 to acclimatise the alpaca in other countries, though unfor- 

 tunately they have almost always failed, from want of know- 

 ledge or care. That the alpaca might be successfully trans- 

 planted to other parts of the world, is sufficiently proved by its 

 thriving condition in the Zoological Gardens of Antwerp ; so 

 that there can be no doubt that, with proper attention, it would 

 come on as well, or even better, in the mountainous regions of 

 central Europe. A herd of alpacas is said to have been in- 

 troduced into Australia in 1859. Should this attempt succeed, 

 it would be of great importance to the English manufacturers, 

 as the eternal civil wars of Peru and Bolivia prevent all pastoral 

 or agricultural progress in those unhappy countries. 



The alpacas are kept in large herds, and graze all the year 

 round on the high table-lands. They are only driven to the 

 huts to be shorn, and are therefore extremely shy. There is, 

 perhaps, no more obstinate animal in existence. When one of 

 them is separated from the herd, it throws itself upon the 

 ground, and neither good words nor blows, nor even the greatest 

 tortures, are able to force it from the spot. 



Shy, like the chamois or the steinbock, the Vicuna inhabits 

 the most solitary mountain-valleys of the Andes. It is of a 

 more elegant shape than the alpaca, with a longer and more 

 graceful neck, and a much shorter and more curly wool, of such 

 extreme fineness as to be worth about twenty-seven shillings 

 the pound. The upper parts of the body are of a peculiar 

 reddish-yellow colour {color de vicuna), the under side of the 

 neck and the limbs light ochre, the long wool of the breast and 

 the abdomen white. During the rainy season, the vicuiias re- 

 tire to the crests of the Cordillera, where vegetation is reduced 

 to the scantiest limits; but they never venture on the bare 

 summits, as their hoof, accustomed to tread only on the turf, 

 is very tender and sensitive. When pursued, they never fly to 

 the ice-fields, but only along the grass-grown slopes. In the 

 dry season, when vegetation withers on the heights, they de- 



