The llamas are the most common burden-bearing animals in Bolivia and on the high plateaus of Peru to-day. They will also be found in the extreme northern part of Chile on the Andean slopes. They form the great freight-carriers in that portion of the Andes, but cannot be worked successfully at a lower altitude than two thousand feet. They are never seen as near the coast as Lima, the Peruvian capital. One will see llama trains every day in La Paz, or the other towns of Bolivia, and herds of these animals feeding on the plains around Lake Titicaca are a common sight. They are principally used in the carrying of ore from the mines to the smelters or nearest railway station. These little animals, which are said to have the head of a camel, the body of a sheep and the legs of a deer, are only about four and one-half feet high and are really beautiful creatures. They are gentle when well treated, and become very fond of their masters. The Indians pet them and talk to them much as though they were human beings. They sometimes dye the wool on the backs in different colours, and tie bright-coloured ribbons through holes which they make in the llamas’ ears. The wool of the llama is much coarser than that of sheep, but one can see the Indian women spinning this wool into threads, and then weaving it into cloth in many places. It can easily be used in the coarse garments worn by these people. If offended the llama has a curious habit of spitting on the offender, which is rather disagreeable, as I know from experience. As the llama is a cud-chewing animal it seems to have this material always ready for such occasions. CHAPTER VIII A LABORATORY OF NATURE The great desert of Tarapacá, which stretches along the coast of Chile for hundreds of miles, has proven to be the most valuable of its entire possessions. And yet it is as barren a desert as one could find on the surface of the globe. Darwin thus describes a part of it that he travelled over: “A complete and utter desert. The road was strewn with the bones and dried skins of the many beasts of burden which had perished on it from fatigue. Excepting the vulture which preys on the carcasses, I saw neither bird, quadruped, reptile, nor insect. On the coast mountains at the height of about two thousand feet, where during the season the clouds generally hang, a very few cacti were growing in the clefts of the rock, and the loose sand was strewn over with a lichen which grows quite unattached. In some parts it was of sufficient quantity to tinge the sand, as seen from a distance, of a pale yellowish colour.” It is this dry climate that has made possible the existence of the great nitrate deposits along this coast. Rainfall, even in moderate quantities, would dissolve the nitrate. These deposits lie as a rule just within the coast range of mountains.