211 



soon as the animal finds himself taken in this manner, 

 he roars terribly, and sheds a torrent of tears. The 

 skin serves for various uses ; good leather for boots 

 or shoes is manufactured from it, and the fat is con- 

 sidered as a specific in the sciatica. 



Of the cloven footed quadrupeds that feed upon 

 vegetables, the most remarkable in Chili are the 

 guanqucy the chinchilla, tlie great wood- mouse, the 

 covur, the cuy, and the visaccia. 



The guangi/^ (mus cyanus) is a species of ground- 

 mouse, which it resembles in its form and size, but 

 its ears are rounder and its hair blue. It is a very 

 timid animal, and digs a burrow in form of a gallery 

 ten feet long, upon each side of which it excavates 

 seven cells of a foot in depth opposite each other. 

 These cells serve as a place of deposit for its winter 

 provision, which consists of certain grey bulbous 

 roots of the size of a walnut. Some pretend that 

 these are a species of truffle, to which they bear 

 some resemblance in taste, but I am rather inclined 

 to believe them the roots of a plant. The manner in 

 which this little animal arranges these roots is really 

 admirable. They are of an angular form, but in or- 

 der to leave no vacant spaces, it places them with 

 such skill that the projecting angles of one root are 

 fitted to the hollows of another. 



In the rainy season, when the g*i/iz;2^w^ can no longer 

 seek its food in the fields, it has recourse to its win- 

 ter hoard, and begins with the roots deposited in the 

 farthest cells, as being the oldest, and in this manner 

 regularly proceeds from one to the other. Its bur- 

 row is always very neat, and it is careful to carry out 



