The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1895-09-21
CURIOUS INSTINCT OF THE LLAMA
south American Animals Which Alvays
Hunt Up One Diving Plaza.

south American Animals Which Away
Hunt Up One Dying Place.
1t Is we'll known that at the south
err e~Ttremi'- e Patagonia the qua
nacos have q dying place, a spot t.
which all individuals inhabiting thc
surrounding plain repair at the an
proach of death to deposit thei,
bones Darwin and Fitzroy first re.
corded this strange instinct in their
personal narratives, and their obser.
vations have since been fully con.
frned by o,hcrs- The best known {.
these dying or burial places are e 1
Uhe banks of the Santa Cruz and Gal.
lepoS rivers, where the river vale, I
arc covered with dense primevtI
thickcts of bushes and trees of stun.
ed growth. There the ground is GOV.
cred with the bones of countless de- |
| generations
The animals, " says Darwin, I'll
mosJ cases must have cravled befol,
uyiu2 beneath and among the bush.
es. A strange instinct in a creatu 4
so pre-cminently social in its habits,
f. dweller all its life long on tia
open, barren plateau and mountai,
sides. What Il subject for a painter,
the gray wilderness OF dwarf thorn
trees, aged and g%rotesque and scant,
ieaved, nourishcd for 600 years l
the bones that whiten the ston,
ground at their roots, the interic,
lit family with the rays of the de
parting sun. chill and gray, and 81.
lent and motiOnless-the guanacos'
Go!gOtha! In the long centuries.
stretching back into a dim immeas.
urable past, so many of this race
have journeyed hither from tho
mountain and the plain to suffer the
Sharp pang Of death, that. to tho
imagination, something of it all
seems to have passed into that hush.
ed and mOurnful nature. And nov,
one more, the latest pilgrim, hai
come, all his little strength spent in
his struggle to penetrate the close
thicket, looking old and gaunt and
ghostly in the twilight, with long,
ragged hair, staring into the gloom
out Of death dimmed sunkcn eyes.
To this account of the animals dy-
ing place and instinct Darwin adds,
II do not at all understand The rea-
son of this, bat | may observe that
the wounded guanacos at the Santa
Cruz invariably walked toward tho
river"
1t would no doubt be rash to affirm
Of any instinct that it is absolutely
unique; bat, putting aside soma
doubtful reports about a custom Of
the Asiatic elephant, which may
have originated in the account OF
Sindbad the sailors discovery of an
elephants burial place, we have no
knowledge Of an instinct similar t.
that of the guanacos in any othc:
animal. SO far as we know, it stands
alone and apart, leading up or sug-
costing any family likeness to it. But
what chiefly attracts the mind to it
is its strangeness. It looks, il, fact,
less like an instinct Of one of the in
ferior creatures than the SUI ersti.
tious Observance of human Trings.
who have knowledge of death and
believe in Il continued existence Hftor
dissolution of a tribe that in past
times had conceived the idea that
the liberated spirit is only able to
find its way to its future abode Ivy
starting at death from the ancient
dying place Of the tribe OF fartily,
and thonco moving westward or sky.
ward or UNDERGROUND over tho Won
worn immCmorlal track invisible to
materia! oyes.--Land and Water