[46] Paco: so called (in the Indian language) because its wool is long and of a bright reddish colour. Alppa-co, sheep of the country, has the wool long and very smooth; and, though coming under the denomination of Peruvian camel, is not very well fitted to carry a burden. Llama llamscanni, or the working sheep (of the Indian) has the wool short and rough; and is the tallest, strongest, and best adapted for the cargo.
EXTERIOR PROPORTIONS OF THE LLAMA.
| Feet. | In. | Lines. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From the crown of the head to the extremity of the sacral bone | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| The coccyx or tail has of length | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| From the upper lip to the crown of the head measures | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Length of the ear | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Length of the neck from its first to its last vertebra | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Anterior height, measured from the base of the fore-foot to the edge of the shoulder-blade parallel with the spine | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Posterior height, measured from the base of the hind-foot to the spine of the sacral bone | 3 | 6 | 0 |
[47] Quipe: bundle of clothes which they carry on their shoulders.
[48] The antelope, by the account of the Indians, sometimes looks over the tops of the eastern chain of the Cordillera, in the Vale of Huanuco. In this vale the tiger-cat has been seen; the mucamuca, probably a species of skunk, as it emits a most offensive stench, is common; and here too armadilloes may be found among the thickets of the pasture-grounds, and they are considered by the Indians to be good eating.
Rats are as common as guinea-pigs in all the agricultural valleys of the interior: the fox ranges all over the high hills and table-lands of the Sierra; and among the crevices of the rocks, in high situations, the traveller meets the long-tailed bizcacha, which burrows like a rabbit, and is valued chiefly for its fur.—Translator.
[49] Jarava foliis involutis, spica panicul.—Flor. Per. et Chil. t. i. p. 5, icon vi. fig. b. As these pasture-grounds are found at twelve or fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, they do not admit of the cultivation and population of the lofty plains of Anahuac or Mexico, which are only six or eight thousand feet above the ocean.
[50] The shrubs, as Dr. Unanue remarks in another part of his work, which grow at the altitude of from twelve to fifteen thousand feet above the Pacific, are of a woody fibre, resinous, and covered with firm bark, to enable them to resist the effects of the piercing cold to which they are naturally exposed.—Translator.
[51] Not only is the ass of Lima the useful quadruped here described, but one of the most ungratefully dealt with by the natives, who seem to have forgotten how honoured this animal had been in ancient times. The saddle-ass is goaded on at a nimble pace by the sharp point of a rib torn from some of the numerous skeletons of mules and horses, &c. which are scattered on the mounds of rubbish, or in the lanes around orchards, within and without the city-walls; and the donkey-driver grins his smile of savage complacency as he swings about his heavy lash, and nicely hits some raw and bleeding spot, the effect of former and frequent inflictions of the same sort at the hands of cruel men.
Ayanque, in his picture of Lima, correctly says,