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Show 140 STEPPES AND DESERTS. bable that, among some of the tribes of Western Canada, the buffalo was from early times made an object of care for the sake of its flesh and skin. (Fragments of the Nat. I-Iist. of Pennsylvania, p. i. p. 4.) In Peru and Quito, the lama is now nowhere found in a state of original wildness. I was told by the natives that the lamas on the western declivity of the Chimborazo had become wild when the ancient residence of the rulers of Quito "Lican'' was laid in ashes. In the same manner the oxen in the Ceja de Ia Montana, in Middle Peru, have become perfectly wild : they are a small and daring race, and often attack the Indians. The natives call them Vacas del Monte, or Vacas cimarronas. (Tschudi, Fauna Peruana, s. 25G.) Cuvier's opinion, that the lama had descended from the still wild Guanaco, has been unfortunately still further disseminated by the meritorious traveller Meyen (Reise urn die Erde, th. iii. s. 64), but has been completely refuted by von Tschudi. The Lama, t.he Paco or Alpaca, and the Guanaco, are three originally distinct species of animals. (Tschudi, s. 228 and 237.) The Guanaco (Huanacu in the Quichua language) is the largest of the three; and the Alpaca, measured from the ground to the crown of the head, the smallest. The lama is next to the guanaco in stature. Herds of lamas, when they are as numerous as I have seen them in the high plateau between Quito and Riobamba, are a great ornament to the landscape. The Moromoro of Chili appears to be a mere variety of the lama. Vicunas, Guanacoes, and Alpacas, still live wild at elevations of from 13,000 to 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. The two latter species are sometimes met with tamed, but the guanaco only rarely. The alpaca does not bear the warmer climate of the lower elevations as well as the lama. Since the introduction of the more useful horses, mules, and asses (the latter acquire great spirit and beauty within the tropics), the custom of rearing and using the lama and the alpaca as beasts of burden, in the mountains and among the mines, has much decreased. But the wool, of such different qualities in respect to fineness, is still an important article in the industry of the inhabitants of the mountains. In Chili, the wild and the tamed guanaco arc distinguished by separate names ; the wild being called Luan, and the tame Chilihucque. The wide dissemination of the |