ANIMALsS. 71

have been made to engraft them into our husbandry. As well known instances of this, it may be recollected that the late Colonel Skinner published an extended notice of these animals in the“‧Ameri- can Farmer,“ in Baltimore, advocating their adoption, in 1821; the „American Agricultural Association,“ of the city of New York, raised a fund by subscription for the introduction, in 1846; a present of several of them was made by the Peruvian Government to the Honorable Daniel Webster, when Secretary of State; and the early part of the past winter, a cargo of llamas and alpacas were shipped to Baltimore, on speculation, from Guayaquil. But owing to the appar- ent inadaptability of these animals to the climate and elevation of the Atlantic and Gulf States, all the experiments hitherto made proved futile. To succeed, then, as a last resort, we have only to direct our attention to those vast elevated tracts known under the name of the „Great Plains,“ at the east of the Rocky Mountains, and lying prin- cipally between longitude 200 and 300 west from Washington, extend- ing from Texas to the Arctic sea. These plains contain but little timber, or woods, and individual trees are rare. They mostly have a gentle slope from the west to the east, though in some instances gracefully undulating, clad with thick, nutritious grasses, and teem- ing with animal life. The soil, though compact, is a fine calcareous mould. The climate is comparatively rainless, storms being rare, except during the melting of the snows on the mountain crests, which swells the rivers, like the Nile, to irrigate rather than to drain the neighboring tracts. The herbage, which is perennial, edible and nutritious throughout the year, is peculiarly adapted to the dryness of the soil and the temperature of the air. It consists, principally, of the“ Gramma or ‧Buffalo'' grass, and covers the ground an inch in height, having the appearance of a delicate moss. During the melting of the snows, in the immense mountain masses beyond the Great Plains, the rivers yield a copious evaporation in their long and sinuous courses; storm-clouds gather on the summits, roll down the mountain flanks, and discharge themselves in vernal showers. In this temporary prevalence of moist atmosphere, these delicate grasses grow, seed in the root, and are cured into hay upon the ground by the returning drought. It is in this longitudinal belt of eternal pasture that the llama and alpaca would thrive, if at all, in any part of our domains, where infinite herds of aboriginal cattle, the buffalo, the antelope, the elk, and wild horses abound, as well as the mountain- sheep, the white and black-tailed deer, and innumerable smaller game. They could be imported from Peru to a number of a few hundreds, by the way of the Gulf of California and the Gila, and presented as a token of friendship to the immense population of no- madic Indians, or their chiefs, by whom they should be protected under prohibitory laws.

Could these animals be suffered to remain unmolested for ten or twenty years, if successful, they would probably increase to thousands, and even millions, ever after while immense profits would result, from their flesh, skins, and wool, besides using them as beasts of burden, in places inaccessible to the camel or the mule.

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