where ichu grass and other little foliage plants, watered by rain
and snow, furnish forage for large flocks of sheep, llamas, and
alpacas. Their owners live in the cultivated valleys, but the Indian
herdsmen must face the storms and piercing winds of the high pastures.

Alpacas are usually timid. On this occasion, however, possibly
because they were thirsty and were seeking water holes in the upper
courses of a little swale, they stopped and allowed me to observe
them closely. The fleece of the alpaca is one of the softest in
the world. However, due to the fact that shrewd tradesmen, finding
that the fabric manufactured from alpaca wool was highly desired,
many years ago gave the name to a far cheaper fabric, the "alpaca"
of commerce, a material used for coat linings, umbrellas, and thin,
warm-weather coats, is a fabric of cotton and wool, with a hard
surface, and generally dyed black. It usually contains no real alpaca
wool at all, and is fairly cheap. The real alpaca wool which comes into
the market to-day is not so called. Long and silky, straighter than
the sheep's wool, it is strong, small of fiber, very soft, pliable and
elastic. It is capable of being woven into fabrics of great beauty and
comfort. Many of the silky, fluffy, knitted garments that command the
highest prices for winter wear, and which are called by various names,
such as "vicuña," "camel's hair," etc., are really made of alpaca.

The alpaca, like its cousin, the llama, was probably domesticated by
the early Peruvians from the wild guanaco, largest of the camels of the
New World. The guanaco still exists in a wild state and is always of
uniform coloration. Llamas and alpacas are extremely variegated. The
llama has so coarse a hair that it is seldom woven into cloth for
wearing apparel, although heavy blankets made from it are in use by
the natives. Bred to be a beast of burden, the llama is accustomed to