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 of stone in the high cordillera and, so far as | know, does not now live at low elevations. The range of the chinchilla is from the southern end of the Desert of Atacama near Illapel north- ward through Chile to southern Peru and the highlands and mountains of western Bolivia. The chinchilla are found in greatest numbers where algarrobilla grows, but they appear to thrive in any arid, shrubby, cactus-covered country at high

. 38—The pod and seeds of the algarrobilla in natural size.

elevations where natural rock piles accumulate and furnish a cavelike shelter difficult of access. They live on grains, seeds, wild onions, herbs, lichens, and algarrobilla. They seem to prefer the sweet seed of the algarrobilla, pods of this plant being found in their holes. Near San Pedro de Atacama on the steep walls of a ravine formed of reddish brown sandstone we found carved the design of a chinchilla skin done to scale and faithful even to the minutest detail (Fig. 84). Closely resembling the chinchilla in size and form is the vizeacha, but its fur is coarser and longer and varies from a pleasing gray to a dirty brown. Though many attempts have been made to interest manufacturers and the public in the vizcacha fur, they have all been unsuccessful.