273 



shut them up in a kind of pen to secure them 

 from the wild beasts. Those which are bred ia 

 the Andes are larger, and produce a longer and 

 finer wool. The Pehuenches, a nation which in- 

 habits a part of these mountains, have crossed 

 the breed of the sheep with the goat, and this 

 mixed breed is much larger than the other 

 sheep ; their hair, v/hicli is more or less curled^ 

 has the firmness and softness of wool, and is fre- 

 quently two feet long ; it resembles much the hair 

 of the Angora goat. 



The goats have also multiplied astonishingly ; 

 thej live almost always in the mountains ; their 

 skins are employed for manufacturing morocco ; 

 of this much is consumed in the country, and 

 great quantities are sent to Peru. 



' Man in Chili enjoys all the advantages whicli 

 result from a mild unchangeable climate, and 

 those persons who do not shorten their lives by 

 irregularities, attain to a very * advanced age. 

 Notwithstanding what M. de Pauw has asserted, 

 I have myself known several old men of a hun- 

 dred and four, a hundred and five, and one in- 

 stance even of a hundred and fifteen years of age. 



* It appears beyoad a doubt, from the concurrent testimony 

 of all writers who have lived in Soutli America, that the 

 jiatives live to a hundred more frequently than Euiopeans to 

 fourscore. The fruit hangs there upon the tree till it drops ; 

 every where iu the Old World the rude climate shakes i* 

 down. E, E, 



VOL. I. X 



