200 



Northern States, the small quantity of food it requires, living as it 

 does in the frozen and mountainous regions of Peru and Bolivia, and 

 thriving equally well in temperate climates, peculiarly fit it for 

 breeding in California, where, from its capacity to go without water 

 for days and weeks, the occasional long droughts of that State will 

 produce no injury. 



" I am fully persuaded that crossing the Vicuna with the Merino 

 and Saxon sheep will produce wool far superior to any now in our 

 country or Europe, both in fineness and texture, as the Vicuna's 

 fleece is short and light, the animal being very delicate in form. The 

 exceeding high price of this wool in England — nearly or quite, I am 

 informed, four dollars per pound — richly compensates for the 

 want of weight, four or five pounds being a large fleece. 



" I have obtained through the same friend a pair of Llamas, very 

 noble animals, and a pair of Alpacas, equally fine. I intend all these 

 for an experiment in California. They all belong to the same class 

 of animals, and are equally adapted for rearing in similar latitudes. 



" The extreme difficulty of getting the Vicuna and Alpaca out of 

 the country, both being strictly prohibited from exportation under a 

 heavy penalty, has hitherto defeated aU attempts of private individ- 

 uals for sending them abroad, except in the instance of Mr. Ledyard, 

 an Englishman, who spent three years in Bolivia in collecting 

 Alpacas, and after almost incredible hardships, dangers, and un- 

 paralleled difficulties, and at a very great expense, having them all 

 to transport across the desert of Attacama, a distance of 100 leagues, 

 on the backs of mules, he succeeded in getting three or four hundred 

 on board a ship he had hired upon the coast, and took the greater part 

 of them to Australia in 1857 ; and a recent report, which I will en- 

 deavor to obtain, says the experiment is proving a great success, 

 both in breeding the animals and improving the quality of the wool. 

 He found it impossible to obtain the Vicuna, even under the stimu- 

 lating influence of the heavy premiums offered by the English Co- 

 lonial Government. Ten thousand pounds was given him by Sydney, 

 twenty thousand pounds by Melbourne, in consideration of the 

 benefits conferred upon Australia by the introduction of the Alpaca. 

 The Vicuna has never been sent abroad, its wool being worth in 

 England 100 per cent, more than the Alpaca, so much superior is it in 

 quality, as you will perceive by the enclosed samples taken from the 

 animals now on board the ' Cyane.' " 



Capt. Bissell then asks the Secretary of the Navy for permission 

 to try his experiment upon the Government lands on Mare Island, in 

 San Pablo Bay, California, where there is a U. S. Navy Yard. Mare 

 Island contains about five hundred acres of excellent pasture land, 



