hand of man never prepares food for either kind, 
—hoth readily find it on their native mountains. 
Besides the extremes of cold, these animals have 
equally to endure the severities of a damp atmo- 
sphere; for while below it seldom rains, in the 
summer months, when evaporation from the sea 
is abundant, clouds collect, and being driven over 
the lower valleys by strong winds from the south 
and west, and condensed by the cold, burst on 
the highlands, where the rain falls in torrents, 
amidst the most awful thunder and lightning.” 
When the Spaniards first invaded Chili and 
Peru, they found the llama, not only in a wild 
state, but also domesticated by the inhabitants ; 
and struck with the similarity of its uses to those 
of the sheep of Kurope, they called it ‘ the sheep 
| of the country, and began to employ it in the 
same manner as the natives. Its flesh was eaten, 
its skin was made into leather, and its wool was 
| spun and manufactured into cloth. The living 
animal was also in great request, and of high 
value as a beast of burden; it carried ore from 
the mines in the mountains, in loads of from 80 
to 100 pounds, at the average speed of twelve or 
fifteen miles a-day, along difficult tracts, and 
| through the most rugged passes; and when too 
| heavily laden, or when urged to travel beyond 
its ordinary pace, it lay down, and obstinately 
refused to proceed. Augustine De Zarata, Span- 
ish treasurer-general of Peru in 1544, committing 
the common mistake of his countrymen in con- 
founding this remarkable animal with the sheep, 
| says, respecting the llama, “In places where 
there is no snow, the natives want water, and to 
supply this they fill the skins of sheep with 
water, and make other living sheep carry them, 
for, it must be remarked, these sheep of Peru are 
large enough to serve as beastsof burden. They 
can carry about one hundred pounds or more, 
and the Spaniards used to ride them, and they 
would go four or five leagues a-day. When they 
are weary, they lie down upon the ground; and 
as there are no means of making them get up, 
either by beating or assisting them, the load 
must of necessity be taken off. When there is a 
man on one of them, if the beast is tired, and 
urged to go on, he turns his head round, and 
discharges his saliva, which has an unpleasant 
odour, into the rider’s face. These animals are 
of great use and profit to their masters, for their 
wool is very good and fine, particularly that of 
the species called pacas (alpaca), which have 
very long fleeces; and the expense of their food 
is trifling, as a handful of maize suffices them, 
and they can go four or five days without water. 
Their flesh is as good as that of the fat sheep of 
Castile. There are now public shambles for the 
sale of their flesh in all parts of Peru, which was 
not the case when the Spaniards came first; for 
when one Indian had killed a sheep, his neigh- 
bours came and took what they wanted, and then 
another Indian killed another sheep in his turn.” 
ALPACA. 
139 
visited the new world, and who published his 
observations in 1790, says, “ There is nothing in 
Peru more useful or more valuable than the 
country sheep called llamas, and they are as 
economical as they are profitable. They have a 
long neck, similar to the camel, and this they 
require; for being tall and upright, they stand 
in need of an elongated neck to reach their food. 
The meat is good: that of the fawn is best and 
most delicate, although the Indians use it spar- 
ingly ; their principal object in rearing this breed 
of cattle being to avail themselves of its wool for 
clothing, and of its service to carry loads. The 
wool they were accustomed to weave into gar- 
ments, one of their kinds of cloth, called huasca, 
being coarse, and in more general use; while the 
other, known by the name of cumbi, was of a 
finer and more delicate quality. Of the latter, 
they still make mantles, table-covers, quilts, and 
various articles of ornamental dress, which are 
durable, and have a gloss upon them, as if partly 
made of silk. The Indians still possess large 
droves, consisting of 400 or 1,000 head each, 
which they load, and with them perform jour- 
neys, travelling like a string of mules, and carry- 
ing wine, cocoa, chuno, quicksilver, and other 
articles of merchandise, and more especially that 
which of all others is the most valuable, namely, 
silver, ingots of which they bear from Potosi to 
Arica, a distance of seventy leagues, as they for- 
merly did to Arequipa, more than twice as far. 
They are accustomed to a cold climate, and thrive 
best in the highlands. Often does it happen that 
they are covered with snow and sparkling with 
icicles, and yet healthy and contented.” Inca 
Garcilasso de la Vega, a native Peruvian, said, 
at a later period than D’Acosta, “ The domestic 
animals which God was pleased to bestow on the | 
Indians, congenial to their character, and like 
them in disposition, are so tractable that a child 
may guide them, more particularly those accus- | 
tomed to bear burdens. The skin was anciently 
steeped in tallow, in order to prepare it; after 
which the Indians used it for shoes, but the lea- | 
ther not being tanned, they were obliged to go 
barefooted in rainy weather. Of it, the Spaniards 
now make bridles, girths, and cruppers for sad- 
dles. The paca (alpaca) was chiefly valued for 
its flesh, but more especially for its wool, long, 
but excellent, of which the natives made cloths, 
and gave to them beautiful and never-fading 
colours.” Similar accounts are given by De Laet 
and Captain G. Shelvocke. 
The number of known varieties of the llama is 
five,—the taruga, the domestic llama, the guan- | 
The first and | 
aco, the alpaca, and the vicugna. 
the second of these appear to be varieties of re- 
spectively the alpaca and the guanaco; and the 
third, the fourth, and the fifth, appear to be dis- 
tinct species. Yet Baron Cuvier and Mr. Ben- 
nett pronounce the guanaco and the vicugna to 
be the only distinct species, and regard the al- 
D’Acosta, one of the earliest naturalists who , paca, the taruga, and the domestic lama as all 
