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The alpacas (animals, with the llamas, allied to the camel tribe) introduced recently into this colony by Mr. Ledger, become one of the most important acts of acclimatisation that has happened in this or in any other country.
Under difficulties of no ordinary kind—in the long, previous study of the habits and economy of these animals—suffering pecuniary and other losses—with the sacrifice of many valuable years of life, overcoming all difficulties, he ultimately succeeds in introducing a large flock of these valuable animals (together with their congeners—the llama, vicuna, and the guanaco), which will ultimately prove of the greatest importance to this colony. Such a spirit of enterprise raises a man, so bold, patient, and persevering, as a benefactor to mankind.
From Mr. Ledger's account, he has had a practical and intimate experience of these animal for the last twenty-four years, and he considers the acclimatisation of the llama and the alpaca in Australia is now established beyond a doubt; and he also considers these animals adapted for the climate and capable of subsisting oil the natural grasses of the country. They possess great hardiness of constitution, and actually require less food than the sheep. Mr. Ledger also remarks that, on one occasion in South America, the alpacas were twenty-two days without water. This happened in the desert of Atacama, on the coast, in the heat of summer; and on arriving at water they displayed a greater inclination to bathe in than to drink it.
The meat of the alpaca is tender, wholesome, and savory. When of a proper age, and well fed, it is described as small-grained and rather mottled, the fat white and firm, and when from three to four years old, of full flavour. It is not a greasy, but rather a juicy meat, and easily digested. The flesh of a full-grown one is more nutritious than that of the yearling although the latter is delicate and savoury. "The hardy nature of the alpaca, its extreme docility and gregarious habits," says Mr. Ledger, "causes it to adapt itself to almost any soil or situation, provided the air is pure and the heat not too oppressive. It has the power of enduring cold, heat, damp, confinement, hunger and thirst—vicissitudes to which it is constantly exposed on its native mountains. No animal is less affected by the changes of climate or food, nor is there any one to be found more easily domesticated. The great value of these animals is the wool; and the process for the first bales of wool sent home and the report upon it from the principal manufacturers of the article, were decidedly encouraging.
