"As we climbed among the rocks, my eye was attracted by a moving object, higher up. On looking more attentively, several animals were seen, of large size, and reddish-brown colour. I took them at first for deer, as I was thinking of that animal. I saw my mistake in a moment. They were not deer, but creatures quite as nimble. They were bounding from rock to rock, and running along the narrow ledges with the agility of the chamois. These must be the vicunas, thought I. "`No,' said my companion; `guanacos--nothing more.' "I was anxious to have a shot at them. "`Better leave them now,' suggested the hunter; `the report would frighten the vicunas, if they be in the plain--it is near. I know these guanacos. I know where they will retreat to--a defile close by--we can have a chance at them on our return.' "I forbore firing, though I certainly deemed the guanacos within shot, but the hunter was thinking of the more precious skin of the vicunas, and we passed on. I saw the guanacos run for a dark-looking cleft between two mountain spurs. "`We shall find them in there,' muttered my companion, `that is their haunt.' "Noble game are these guanacos--large fine animals--noble game as the red deer himself. They differ much from the vicunas. They herd only in small numbers, from six to ten or a dozen: while as many as four times this number of vicunas may be seen together. There are essential points of difference in the habits of the two species. The guanacos are dwellers among the rocks, and are most at home when bounding from cliff to cliff, and ledge to ledge. They make but a poor run upon the level grassy plain, and their singular contorted hoofs seem to be adapted for their favourite haunts. The vicunas, on the contrary, prefer the smooth turf of the table plains, over which they dart with the swiftness of the deer. Both are of the same family of quadrupeds, but with this very essential difference--the one is a dweller of the level plain, the other of the rocky declivity; and nature has adapted each to its respective _habitat_."