174 
THE ALPACA.-NO. 1. 
Asyhim, the qualities of which are to he tested by 
the Board of Trustees, at their n&t monthly visita¬ 
tion, from whom we hope also to have a favorable 
account. The Asylum has a very superior stock 
of white hogs, to which the superintendent has 
lately introduced a fine Suffolk boar, procured from 
Mr. Stickney, with the view of still further im¬ 
proving them. 
THE ALPACA.—No. 1. 
The following information relative to the nature, 
uses, and history of the alpaca, or Peruvian sheep, 
has principally been drawn by us from a gentleman 
who has travelled extensively in South America. 
In addition to considerable personal observation, he 
appears to be well read in the works of the early 
Spanish writers on the subject; and with a view to 
their ultimate introduction into the United States, 
he has kept a vigilant eye upon the more recent 
movements to domesticate them in Spain, France, 
and Great Britain. 
By what we can gather from various sources, we 
are led to believe that there are at least three kinds 
of Peruvian sheep, namely, the Guanaco or Llama, 
the Paco or Alpaca, and the Vicuna , which agrees 
with the classification of Baron Cuvier, who regards 
the alpaca as a mere variety of the llama, and who 
considers the vicuna as the only animal in the 
group that deserves to be specially distinguished 
from the latter. This also agrees with the opinion 
of our informant, who cites Inca Garcilasso de la 
Vega, as saying, in the year 1611, that “ the domes¬ 
tic animals of the Peruvians-are of two kinds, the 
greater and the smaller, which they, as a common 
name, call llama, that is, cattle or sheep. The 
larger kind they call huanacu-llama, on account of 
the resemblance it bears to the wild animal known 
in Peru by the name of huanacu, from which it dif¬ 
fers only in color; for the domestic llamas are to be 
met with as various in their colors as horses; but 
the wild llamas are uniformly of a chestnut-color. 
The larger kind bears a great similitude to a camel, 
except that it is deficient in the hump upon its 
back, and is not so large. The small kind they 
call paco-llama, which is only reared for its flesh 
and wool. The vicunas are not very unlike goats 
in their appearance, except that they have no horns, 
are larger, and are of a leonine color, or more ruddy. 
They live in the highest mountains and groves, and 
particularly love those cold regions of solitude, 
which the Peruvians designate by the common 
name of punas; neither are they annoyed by frost 
and snow, but are rather created by them. They 
go in flocks, and run most swiftly; and such is their 
timidity, that at the sight of man, or wild beasts, 
they instantly hurry into inaccessible retreats, and 
thereby elude their pursuits. There were formerly 
a great number of these animals here, but they are 
now become much more rare, in consequence of the 
promiscuous license of hunting them. Their woo! 
is very fine, resembling silk, or the fur of the beaver, 
and the natives deservedly hold it in high estima¬ 
tion ; for, besides other properties, it is also said to 
resist heat and impart coolness to the wearer.” 
The order of animals to which the Peruvian 
sheep belong, offers to the eye of the naturalist but 
a very small anatomical difference of conformation 
from that containing the camel properly so called. 
Their feet are not, like those of the camel, entirely 
padded with an elastic sole, but their two toes are 
separated, each having strong, horny nails or 
hoofs, nearly resembling the talons of a bird, with a 
thick cushion or pad beneath. They are also dis¬ 
similar in t-he formation and arrangement of their 
teeth, having on each side of the upper jaw one 
canine tooth more than the camel, and want a sec¬ 
ond canine tooth in the lower jaw. According to 
Walton, their “ incisors project full half an inch 
from the muzzle bone, so as to meet the pad fitted 
above, by which means, and with the aid of the 
tongue and cleft lip, they are not only enabled to 
draw together, and clip short grass upon the 
ground, but also, with their long necks, pointed 
muzzle and the oblique posture which the head 
can assume, to reach herbage growing oh the 
ledges, and in the interstices of rocks seven feet 
high, as well as the tops of hedges and tall shrubs. 
Their teeth are, at the same time, so strong, and in¬ 
terlock in such a manner, that they easily crush and 
masticate vegetable substances too hard and tough 
for ordinary cattle.” The absence of the hump, 
and of the callosity on the breast, also constitute 
striking points of difference between these animals 
and the camel. The llama, however, according to 
Molina, has a conformation resembling the camel’s 
hump, being provided with an excess of nutritive 
matter, which lies in a thick bed of fat under the 
skin, and is absorbed as a compensation for an 
occasional want of food. 
Some of the Peruvian sheep, as in the camels, 
have callosities on the knees of the fore legs, and, 
like them, kneel down in the same manner. Their 
stomachs and those of the camels, are, in some 
respects, similarly organized. That of the llama, 
according to Sir Everard Home, “ has a portion of 
it, as it were, intended to resemble the reservoirs 
for water in the camel; but these have no depth, 
are only superficial cells, and have no muscular 
apparatus to close their mouths, and allow the solid 
food to pass into the fourth cavity, or truly digesting 
stomach, without going into these cells.” But the 
stomachs of the Peruvian sheep certainly must 
have some kind of internal mechanism for retaining 
water, or secreting a liquid substance; for it has 
been remarked, along the flanks of some parts of the 
Andes, that they live far above any lakes or streams, 
and abstain from drink a great portion of the year; 
and further, it has been observed, that, in a state of 
domestication, they never manifest any desire to 
drink so long as they can obtain an abundance of 
succulent herbage. 
From the peculiar organization of both the camel 
and the llama, we are led to infer that each is evi¬ 
dently fitted by nature for the endurance of great 
hardships and privations—“ the one amidst the 
sands of the desert, under a burning sun—the other 
on the wastes of some of the loftiest mountains of 
the world, with a region of perpetual snow above 
them. The slight variations of their conformation, 
such as that of the foot, are modifications of nature 
which fit them for their respective localities. A 
habitation amongst the rocks would be mechanically 
impossible for the camel; whilst the burning plains 
would be as little suited to the llama.” 
