16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
hesitation in setting out within the next quarter
of an hour,' said Stephen.
'Once their virtuous principle is infused into
my whole being, I shall bare my bosom to the
blast with perfect equanimity. It will not be
long; already I feel that agreeable insensibility
invading my pharynx. But first pray tell me
about the llama. I am pitifully ignorant of the
whole tribe – have never seen a living specimen
and only very few indifferent bones.'
'Well, sir, there are only two wild kinds, the
vicuña, a little orange creature with a long
silky fleece that lives high up, close to the
snow, though sometimes we see a few above
Hualpo, and the guanaco. We see some of
them too – where would the puma be, were it
not for the guanaco? – but they are more
usual in Chile and right down to Patagonia.
They are more easily tamed than the vicuña,
and they are the ancestors of the llama and