THE CAMEL. 211 



cannot do much iu the way of jumping, except occasionally perfo rul- 

 ing some awkward and grotesque gambols. One great desideratum 

 in a transport animal is that he is capable of use in various ways. 

 The camel can hardly be considered inferior in this respect. 

 Besides sowari and pack work lie carries small guns or will drag 

 larger ones; he is used in high, peculiar, double-storey carriages 

 (in the Punjab for example). General Gordon writes that they are 

 used for ploughing in Turkey, and that they make excellent 

 tramway animals ! The products of camels are most useful — 

 fuel, milk, excellent hair for shawls, cloths, and various fabrics, both 

 coarse and fine, are obtained from the living animal ; flesh-food, 

 leather, bones, and various other useful substances from the dead. 

 No part of the dead camel should go to waste. In camel countries 

 these animals are used to afford amusement by combats, running 

 races, or are trained to special performances, such as dancing. The 

 adaptations of the camel to the desert which is its home are numerous 

 and evident. Among others they are his height giving wide range 

 of vision ; his length of neck enabling him to reach far to the shrubs 

 on either side of the track suited as food ; ears very small, and 

 nostrils capable of closure to keep out the sand; eyes prominent 

 and protected by an overhanging upper lid, limiting vision upwards 

 and guarding from too powerful rays of the sun ; his horny pads 

 to rest on when he lies in the hot sand ; his peculiarly cushioned 

 feet ; his hump or reserve store of nutriment ; his water reservoirs 

 in connection with the stomach ; his patient, plodding habits. 

 It is a great mistake to consider the camel ugly. "Handsome is 

 who handsome does" applies well in this case ; but it is universally 

 admitted that though a mangy dromedary in a show or transport 

 lines is not handsome, a well kept camel in his native place 

 is not ugly but quite the reverse ! In the loneliness of the 

 desert travellers recognise the camel and his movements not 

 only as suitable, but sometimes as graceful, and even grand. 

 We have this opinion in many well-known works of travel. It 

 is well worth the while of any of my hearers who has not 

 looked into the eye of a camel, to do so on the earliest possible 

 occasion. I particularly admire its rich colour, its large size and 

 clearness, and the stern aspect produced by the overhanging brow. 

 Camels are much blamed for objecting to their packs being put on, 

 but they are a sa rule fully justified in doing so, for the loads are (as 

 they have almost invariably been found in the past) uncomfortable 

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