The next day we entered a region of mountain pastures.  We passed occasional swamps and little pools of snow water.  From one of these we turned and looked back across the great Cotahuasi Canyon, to the glaciers of Solimana and snow-clad Coropuna, now growing fainter and fainter as we went toward Parinacochas.  At an altitude of 16,500 feet we struck across a great barren plateau covered with rocks and sand—­hardly a living thing in sight.  In the midst of it we came to a beautiful lake, but it was not Parinacochas.  On the plateau it was intensely cold.  Occasionally I dismounted and jogged along beside my mule in order to keep warm.  Again I noticed that as the result of my experiences on Coropuna I suffered no discomfort, nor any symptoms of mountain-sickness, even after trotting steadily for four or five hundred yards.  In the afternoon we began to descend from the plateau toward Lampa and found ourselves in the pasture lands of Ajochiucha, 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 “vicuna,” “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 the presence of strangers and is not any more timid of them than our horses and cows.  The alpaca, however, requiring better