st
value, and the grey fetching only half the price of the red.

But all such uses are mere trifles when compared with the value of these
animals as beasts of burden--"ships of the desert," as they have been
poetically named. By means of them, communication is kept up between
distant countries separated by large tracts of frightful deserts, which,
without some such aid, would be entirely impassable by man.

We arrive at the _Llamas_, or camel sheep, as the old Spanish colonists
used to call them.

These animals are natives of South America, and their range is limited.
They are found only on the high plateaus of the Andes; through which
they extend, from New Granada on the north to Chili on the south, though
one species ranges even to the Straits of Magellan. In all there are
four distinct species of them--the Llama proper, the Paca or Alpaca, the
Guanaco, and the Vicuna.

The Llama and Paca are both held in a state of domestication; the former
as a beast of burden, and the latter for its hair or wool. On the other
hand, the Guanacos and Vicunas are wild animals, and are eagerly hunted
by the mountain tribes of Indians for their flesh and skins, but in the
case of the vicuna for the very fine wool which it yields, and which
commands an enormous price in the markets of Peru.

The Cordilleras of the Andes, below the line of perpetual snow, is the
region inhabited by these creatures. In the hot countries, lying lower,
they do not thrive; and even die in journeys made to the tropic coast
lands. The wild species keep together in herds--sometimes of one or two
hundred individuals--feeding on a sort of rushy grass or reed--called
_yea_ by the natives--and they scarce ever drink, so long as they can
pasture on green herbage. They have the singular habit of going to a
particular spot to drop their dung, which resembles that of goats or
sheep; and this habit often costs them their lives, since the excrement
points out to the hunter their place of resort. They keep a careful
look-out against any danger, usually taking care to place old males as
sentinels of the flock, who give warning of the approach of an enemy.
When startled they run swiftly, but soon halt, stand gazing back, and
then gallop on as before.

During summer they frequent the sides of the mountains; but, as winter
approaches, they descend to the high table plains, and browse upon the
natural meadows found there. They are captured in various ways. The
I