264 ' 



Before the conquest they employed the wool of 

 this animal to make their clothes ; but since sheep 

 have multiplied so much^ they make use of the 

 wool of the chilihueque only for the most valu- 

 able cloth. 



What M. de Buffon and the celebrated Lin- 

 n^us have said respecting the paco and the vi- 

 cugna being of the same species^ they have like- 

 wise asserted of the guanaco and the llama. 

 Both these naturalists have taken the llama for 

 the domesticated guanaco, but I have good rea- 

 sons for being of a different opinion. Besides 

 the natural aversion which subsists between these 

 two animals, and which prevents them from 

 ever mingling, they also offer some very striking 

 differences which can never be attributed to the 

 change of situation alone. The llama has a straight 

 back, all its legs nearly of an equal length, 

 and an excrescence on the breast which is almost 

 always moistened with a yellowish oily exudation. 

 The guanaco, on the contrary, has a bunched or 

 rather an arched back ; the hind feet are so long 

 that when it is pursued it never attempts to ascend 

 the mountains, like the llama, the paco, and 

 the ricugna, but descends them, leaping, like the 

 buck and the deer ; a course well suited to the 

 peculiar conformation of its legs. 



The guanaco (camellushuanacus) exceeds the 

 chilihueque in size ; and I have seen some of 

 them that were the height of ahorse. Its usual 

 length, however, from the nose to the tail, is 



