A Llama Train Descending the Mountains of Peru
The Llama is a sure-footed creature, knows how to find food for itself, and can carry a weight of a hundred pounds about twelve miles a day. This makes it very useful for the miners of the Andes, who use it to carry their ore down the rough and steep mountain paths. When the animals are tired they will lie down, and the only way to make them get up is to take off their loads. That is another way they have to make their drivers treat them kindly.
The Alpaca is a smaller animal than the Llama and is not used to carry goods, but for all that it has its uses and is kept in large flocks on the high levels of the Andes. Its value lies in its wool. While the hair of the Llama is coarse and of little use, the Alpaca is covered with a long, fine wool, of a silky lustre, which if left uncut will grow to twenty, and even to thirty inches in length. If cut every year it grows to be about six or eight inches in length. Its color is often a yellowish-brown, but is sometimes gray or black.
For very many years the Indians have made their blankets and cloaks of alpaca wool, and for more than fifty years it has been used in Europe and America to make shawls, coat-linings, umbrella-covers and other goods. The wild species have also a very delicate and soft wool, of high value in weaving, but it is not nearly so long as that of the alpaca.
THE ARCTIC BEAST OF BURDEN
A fact many of you may know is that nearly all the animals kept by man for work or for food are those with hoofed feet. Among other animals that he puts to work may be named the dog, and this is not used much as a worker. A little has been said in former pages about working dogs, but the only region in which the dog is kept only for work is in the Arctic zone. The dog is the working animal of the Eskimo and the only one. Therefore in speaking of animals that work for man we must not forget the Eskimo dog.
Reproduced by Permission of The Philadelphia Museums
Dog Train Hauling Provision in Northern Canada