LLAMAS. 419 



getting permission from the Peruvian and Bolivian Governments for the export of 

 such a large number, three hundred head were introduced, but in five years these 

 had dwindled down to a dozen, and the experiment does not appear to have been 

 repeated. Probably one of the great difficulties to be contended with in the 

 successful introduction of llamas into other countries would be to find a locality 

 where they could be left almost to themselves, and yet where they would be safe. 

 The climate of Britain is doubtless far too damp for them, and in this respect parts 

 of Australia would be much more suitable. 



The alpaca goes with young eleven months, and produces but one at a birth. 

 Its flesh is as excellent as that of the llama. 



EXTINCT CAMEL-LIKE UNGULATES. 



It has already been mentioned that extinct camels occur in India and Northern 

 Africa, while fossil species of llamas some as large as camels are found in eastern 

 South America. In addition to these, the Pliocene and Miocene formations of the 

 United States have, however, yielded the remains of a number of extinct genera 

 of camel-like Ungulates, from which both camels and llamas have probably been 

 derived ; and as no such forms have hitherto been discovered in Europe, we may 

 probably regard North America as the original home of the family, from which the 

 modern representatives have migrated southwards across the Isthmus of Darien, 

 and westwards over Behring Strait into Asia. In the older Tertiary formations 

 of Patagonia the group is unknown. 



Some of these North American Pliocene types, like Procamelus, were not 

 unlike existing members of the family, but had four premolar teeth in each jaw. 

 In the Miocene we come to still more generalised forms, having the typical number 

 of forty-four teeth (that is to say, with three pairs of incisors in each jaw), while 

 one kind (Poebrotherium), which was no larger than a fox, had the main meta- 

 carpal and metatarsal bones of the feet separate, and also showed traces of the bones 

 of the lateral toes. From this form a transition can be traced to others with four 

 complete toes and bunodont x molar teeth ; and we thus reach the important con- 

 clusion that camels and llamas were derived from pig -like animals quite in- 

 dependently of the true Ruminants. 



] The meaning of this term is explained in the next chapter. 



