Note 1145 — Chapter IV

Some years ago a priest named Cabrera, the cura of a village called Macusani, in the province of Caravaya, succeeded in breeding a cross between the wild vicuña and the tame alpaca. He had a flock of these beautiful animals, which yielded long, silken, white wool; but they required extreme care, and died out when the sustaining hand of Cabrera was no longer available. There is also a cross between a llama and an alpaca, called guariso, as large as the llama, but with much more wool. The guanaco and llama have also been known to form a cross; but there is no instance of a cross between the two wild varieties,—the guanaco and vicuña. The extremely artificial life of the alpaca, which renders that curious and valuable animal so absolutely dependent on the ministrations of its human master, and the complete domestication of the llama, certainly indicate the lapse of many centuries before such a change could have been effected.