CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



581 



THE VICUNA. 



The keeping of a herd of lamas is a matter of little or no difficulty ; at night they are put into 

 an inclosure, where they sleep winter and summer without any protection, although at the eleva- 

 tion at which they usually live the temperature often falls below the freezing-point immediately after 

 sunset, even in the summer. In the morning they are allowed to quit the inclosure to wander 

 about upon the mountains in search of food, and they return of their own accord in the evening. 

 The dung, like that of the camel, is employed as fuel ; the milk is said to be pretty good, but the 

 natives did not use it prior to the arrival of the Spaniards ; the skin furnishes a good leather. 



These animals seem to have been to the aborigines what the reindeer— with the exception of 

 the milk — is to the Laplander. Surrounded by herds of such animals, which required almost no 

 care, and by the spontaneous productions of the soil, the Indian had little incentive to improvement. 

 Humboldt has an eloquent passage on this subject : "When we attentively examine this wild part 

 of America, we seem to be carried back to the first ages, when the earth was peopled step by 

 step ; we appear to assist at the birth of human societies. In the Old World, we behold the pas- 

 toral life prepare a people of huntsmen for the agricultural life. In the New World, we look in 

 vain for these progressive developments of civilization, these moments of repose, these resting- 

 places in the life of a people Those species of ruminating animals which constitute the 



riches of the people of the Old World are wanting in the New The bison and the musk-ox have 

 not yet been reduced to the domestic state ; the enormous multiplication of the Lama and the 

 Guanaco have not produced in the natives the habits of the pastoral life." Gregory de Bolivar 

 calculates that four millions of lamas were killed annually in his time, to be eaten, and that three 

 hundred thousand were employed in the transport of the produce of the mines of Potosi alone. 

 The number in domestic use in all South America must have been enormous. But these multi- 

 tudes are lessened, and the race itself will probably ere long be extinct. Civilization has brought 

 with it the animals of the old continent. The horse and the mule have almost entirely super- 

 seded the lamas as beasts of burden in the open country, and the sheep and the goat have taken 

 their place, in a great measure, as contributors to the food and raiment of man. 



The Paco, or Lama Paco, or Alpaca, A. Paco, which is also domesticated by the Peruvians, is 

 considerably smaller than the lama, and is never employed as a beast of burden ; it is principally 

 valued for the sake of its soft, silky hair, sometimes a foot in length, which is woven into fabrics 

 of great beauty. Large quantities have lately been imported into Europe for this purpose. 



The Vicuna, or Vicugna, or Lama Vicuna, A. vicunna, is about the" same size as the Alpaca; 

 its color is reddish-yellow on the back and whitish on the belly. It is a wild species, which is 

 principally sought after for the sake of its fine wool, from which esteemed stuffs are largely woven. 



