ISO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the outbreak of the civil war some interesting and successful attempts 

 were made to use the " ship of the desert " for military transportation 

 purposes. The first lengthy expedition was made by Lieutenant 

 Edward F. Beale, who on September 1 set out to make a wagon road 

 from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to California. Camels, as well as 

 mules, were used by the road-making party. The work lasted forty- 

 eight days. Beale reported that the camels had been subjected to the 

 severest tests and had failed in no instance; that they even learned 

 to swim rivers. Beale considered that one of them was worth four good 

 mules. From 1857 to 1861 Beale with twenty camels was occupied in 

 exploring the unknown regions of the southwest. He found that the 

 camels could do successfully all that was required of them. By 1861 

 his herd of twenty had increased to twenty-eight.^* 



Other trials of the camels were made in 1859 by Major D. H. 

 Vinton, who used twenty-four of them in carrying burdens for a survey- 

 ing party.^^ From May to August, 1859, Lieutenant Edward L. Hartz 

 was in charge of the camel herd. Hartz sent to the War Department a 

 full journal of an exploring expedition in which camels and mules were 

 used. His verdict was not quite so enthusiastic as those of Wayne and 

 Beale, but he pronounced the experiment a success. The camels were 

 inferior to mules, he said, on slippery surfaces; they were not as good 

 climbers as mules, but they were much swifter on level, rocky or 

 sandy ground; it was difficult to keep the loads on the camels and 

 frequent stops had to be made to replace the saddles, which could not 

 be properly fastened by inexperienced packers. It was his belief that 

 the female camel was better than the male; that the camels really pre- 

 ferred bushes, dry shrubs and grasses to grazing grasses ; that they could 

 go without water for more than two days and not suffer. All in all, 

 he concluded, the camel was much superior to the mule.^® 



The success of the War Department tests caused other importations. 

 In 185'8 a British vessel brought over two cargoes of camels for a Mrs. 

 Watson, who lived near Houston, Texas. Arab caretakers were em- 

 ployed and F. E. Lubbock, later governor of Texas, was put in charge 

 of them. He says that they were healthy, and useful, but that they 

 created too much sensation when they went into Houston or traveled 

 about the country." 



There is a tradition that ten animals were brought to New York in 

 1857; of these two survived and were sent to Nevada, where by 1875 

 their offspring numbered ninety-five.^® 



In 1861 a San Francisco company imported twenty Bactrians (two- 



" Circular No. 53, Bureau of Animal Industry, 1903. 

 ^= Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 422. 

 " Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 425-41. 

 " Lubbock, " Six Decades in Texas," 1900, p. 238. 

 "Leonard, pp. 14, 123. 



