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 1 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. 
1 The meaning of this term is explained in the next chapter. 
