The Penn's Grove record., 1884-02-16

calmly beast pop up from behind a rock,
as the stumbling feet of my mule sent
some loose stones rolling noisily down a
precipice. The brute surveyed me for
an instant. then shook his hairy head.
gave a loud snort, and vanished. The
echoes of the lonely pass bore to my
ears a singular noise, as if an army Of
barefooted men was flying down the
mountain. l had startled a herd Of
grazing Alpacas, and their sentry had
warned them Of my approach. The
noise was the beating of their huge,
cartilage padded feet OH the rocky
ground. As ITode on, | saw focks
from time to time, grubbiDg the sparse
grass from the rock-sprinkled levels and
the steep de~clivities, which are such a
peculiar feature of the heart of the
Andes. There was always II big
fellow perched on a rock, or at some
other point of advantage, and at his
snort the whole herd would turn tail
and take to flight. Often l would see
the sentry, without seeing his comrades,
balanced far above me on some splin-
tered pinnacle Of stone, with his big,
soft eyes fixed on me, ready to give the
signal, as 0 as he considered my
proximity dangerous. 1t was a singu-
lar sensation, the meeting with this
alert brute, the only living thing but
myself and mule and an occasional
condor, among these desolate mountains
whose peaks pierced the sky in a a line
of savage teeth, like a huge saw. That
evening, on a rock-Strewn plateau,
without a bush and almost without a
blade of grass around it, l halted at a
dreary, stone built house, with a roof
made of bundles of straw, held down
with planks and stout saplings. Skulls
and skeletons of horned cattle and other
animals were scattered all around.
From the wall of the house projected a
couple of big bulls horns, apparently
cemented i'll the masonry for ornamental
purposes. AS 1 drew rein, a terrific
snorting and %scrambling broke out in a
paddock, fenced with stout poles, be.
hind the house. This was an Alpaca
farm.
The Alpaca, which many people con-
fuse with the Llama, though very close
ly allied to it in form and characters
tics, is the {" gold mine of the Indians
of the Andes, especially those of Peru,
Bolivia and Chill. 1t Is an extraordi-
nary animal, IN more senses than one
Its appearance. with its full coat of
wool, is supremelY ridiculous. 1t is as
large as a big sheep, with a neck like a
small giraffe !; a mere bundle of hair
carried around on four legs, terminated
with feet resembling those of ar os-
trich. Its legs are powerful, and map
propriately graceful in comparison with
the body they support and the feet in
which they terminate.
If the Alpaca is absurdly ugly with
its hair on, it is a positive burlesque af-
ter it has been fully sheared. 1t is
sheared like a sheep, only its head is
left covered. 1t Is sometimes sheared
once a year, yielding a six to eight-inch
fleece, but the more provident Alpaca
farmers only shear one in two or three
years, when they get wool from fifteen
to thirty inches long. The wool is
found ranging in color from white
through gray, yellow and brown to
black. The animal looks black, how
ever, as the fleece exudes an oil, and
mats with the dust of the mountain
pastures in which it roams at large,
The fleece is very fine in texture, metal
lie in lustre when clean, and the fibre
is far stronger than any sleeps wool
which l know.
The Alpaca is allowed to gaze at
random, only being rounded i'll " to
be sheared. 1t can only be domesticated
when young. An old Alpaca, separated
from its flock, will lie down and die of
pure stubbornness and grief. Young
Alpacas are, however, herded in pad
docks, and become as familiar, quiet,
and impudent as dogs.
They are gentle brutes, unlike their
cousins, the Llamas, which are often
full of v|iciousness. The Alpaca never
gets over its shy and timorous wild
habits and though 1t seems to know and
not fear the farmer and his men, the
mere sight of a stranger in the distance
will stampede it. The age to which an
Alpaca VIII produce valuable wool
none of the farmers seem to know.
When it ceases to be worth shearing
they kill and eat it.
The Alpaca farmer leads a life little
better than that of the brute he lives
on. His home is ~desolation itself. His
only amusement is eating and sleeping.
He scarcely knows even the wee of
drunkenness. Excepta chance traveller
ne never sees a soul from years end to
years end but the priest, commonly an
Indian like himself, who strays up now
and then from his home in the lower
regions 10 COlleCJ MS iudoS llOlley, anu
his train of pack animals. Most of the
trading is half barter and half money.
The visit of the trader is a great occa-
sion. Then the old iron scales are
brought out and hung on the bulls
horn at the door, and the years harvest
raked down from the loft Of the house
where it has been stored. 1t is a curl
Gus fact that the Alpaca farmer will
never let a trader use any other scales.
He is afraid of being cheated. But he
let's the trader weigh the wool with his
own weights, and | fancy the trader is
with the bargain.
During the solitary portion of the
year the women of the Alpaca farm
card and spin the wool, and weave it
into blankets and ponchos, or cloaks,
which latter are simply blankets with a
hole in the middle for the head to pass
through. These ponchos are sometimes