THE CAMEL. 209 



ready to do it again and sure to turn up when there is hard work 

 going. Although the camel spits and grumbles when being loaded, 

 though he makes unpleasant noises in the camp at night, and though 

 he is generally considered unlovely in the extreme — and certainly 

 no European nose can appreciate his odour — these unpleasant habits 

 and conditions are to my mind more than redeemed by the undaunted 

 and plucky manner in which he plods on with his load until he 

 actually falls dead, by the stolid manner is which he remains quiet 

 after a mortal wound until he rolls over on his side to die, and by 

 the way in which he steadily plods on mile after mile under his 

 heavy load until the halt is called, even for a march of considerably 

 more than regulation length. The peace services of the camel are 

 not less meritorious than his war services. His function as ship 

 of the desert is gradually being taken away from him by the spread 

 of railways, as in Rajputana, Sind, Central Asia, and Egypt, and we 

 have historical evidence that his range has been limited to an 

 extent since when the westward and eastward waves of the 

 Mussulman invasion extended from Spain in the West to Southern 

 India in the East. A few representatives remain in Spain, very 

 few in Mysore, and in Europe practically the only camels are 

 the stunted race of Pisa, which seems to have been introduced 

 somewhat recently from Tripoli. I believe there are camels in 

 Constantinople and European Turkey ; I observe that General Gordon 

 writes of them in Turkey. I noticed recently in the Royal Dublin 

 Society's Museum a sowari camel on a real and antique Irish harp 

 as its prominent decoration: how it came there I cannot surmise! I 

 have somehow arrived at the impression that in Asiatic Russia, in 

 the Caspian region, and Crimea, especially of European Russia, the 

 range of the two-humped camel is becoming restricted by railway 

 development. Expansion of range is taking place in the Southern 

 States of America, where imported camels have done well and are 

 multiplying rapidly, and in Australia, whither they have been imported 

 from India, and where have been established breeding stations. It 

 is considered that the camel will prove specially valuable in opening 

 up Central Australia. In Mongolia, Western China, the Central 

 Asian Desert, the Khanates, Afghanistan, Beluchistau, Persia, Asia 

 Minor, Arabia, and the whole desert area of Northern and Central 

 Africa the camel reigns supreme as a means of transport for goods 

 and travellers. Tradition has it that the camel invaded Africa by 

 way of the Isthmus of Suez; he has invaded America and Australia 



