THE LIVING WORLD. 
573 
the easy and speedy carriage of their riders, and are related to their less fortunate 
congeners as the thoroughbred race-horse to the merest scrub. Their gait 
however, requires the rider to be no mere novice, if we are to accept the reports 
of travellers who have experimented with this form of riding. Its length is 
from ten to eleven feet, and its height 'from seven to eight. Its single hump 
serves it for a storehouse in which it accumulates strength against the days 
when forage is scarce. It will eat anything green, so that its owners are 
compelled to protect it against eating the plant known as “camel poison.” 
When not on the march 
it drinks once each day, 
but if striding across the 
desert it is watered but 
once in six days. While 
carrying from five hun¬ 
dred to six hundred 
pounds of freight, it will 
travel regularly twenty- 
five miles a day. The 
thoroughbreds, or riding 
dromedaries are called 
hygeens , and will travel 
from fifty to one hundred 
and fifty miles a day. 
The baggage-carrying 
dromedary is an inferior 
creature and can be pur¬ 
chased at an average 
price of fifteen dollars. 
The Auchenia, ex¬ 
cept for their large heads, 
long necks and great ears, 
would look very much 
like sheep. Their coat 
is most abundant and 
valuable. 
The Guanaco {Au¬ 
chenia huanaco ) is from 
seven to eight feet in 
length, and four feet in 
height, and makes its 
home on the s o ut hern dromedary and bactrian camel. 
Andes. It is gregarious 
and the herds vary from six to thirty, but never allow the presence of more than 
one male. Its fleece is a dirty brown. It always carries its tail erect, andi 
defends itself by spitting at its foe; it is a fair swimmer and a swift runner. 
The Llama {Auchenia llama) is used in Bolivia and Peru a& a beast of 
burden, and will carry from one hundred to two hundred pounds travelling- 
from six to twelve miles a day, up and down the mountain; for beasts of bur¬ 
den only the males are used. 
