ALPACA OR PERUVIAN SHEEP. 155 



and with great advantage, be naturalized in those moun- 

 tainous districts of Scotland and Ireland, and on the bleak 

 and barren hills of England and Wales, which, from their 

 nature, can never be brought into cultivation, and which 

 now yield subsistence to no creatures fit for the use of 

 man. From long and extensive inquiries he is convinced 

 that the alpaca will live and flourish on the coarse mountain 

 grasses, where an English sheep would starve ; and he is 

 satisfied that thus a large addition might be made to our na- 

 tional wealth, as the alpaca would produce fleeces double 

 the weight of those taken from an English sheep, and of a 

 superior quality, while it would furnish a wholesome meat 

 for general consumption. 



" The experiments which have hitherto been made for 

 naturalizing the alpaca in England have not, it must be own- 

 ed, turned out favorably ; but we must be careful not to con- 

 found accidental casualties with a natural incapacity of the 

 creature to flourish on our soil. The only trials yet made 

 have been on too limited a scale to furnish any decisive re- 

 sult. They have been kept in pairs, or groups of five or 

 six, and have rarely been judiciously treated. In some in- 

 stances they have received the seeds of disease during their 

 long voyage, from which they have never recovered, and in 

 others have been injured by being afforded rich pasturage, 

 instead of the coarse and scanty food to which they are ac- 

 customed. Yet, even under these unfavorable circum- 

 stances, the whole current of testimony of those who have 

 kept them is in favor of their prospering well on our high 

 lands, if the experiment were fairly tried. 



" Mr. R. Bell, of Villa-house, in the county of Kerry, 

 procured a small herd of alpacas, and his account of them is 

 so curious and interesting that we extract a few of his sen- 

 tences : 



" The alpacas on his farm are of various colors, some be- 

 ing brown, others black, and one perfectly white. They 

 have not been shorn since the month of June, 1841, and the 

 average length of their wool at this time is eleven inches, 

 and so firm to their bodies that the smallest lock cannot be 

 pulled oflf without great force ; therefore they never lose a 

 bit. It is exceedingly fine and silky ; indeed, very much 

 finer than any alpaca wool I have yet seen imported into 

 England ; and, during the two years they have been here, 

 there is a visible improvement in the texture of their coat, 



