206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Dr. Hammond introduced Major "Wayne, U. S. A., recently engaged 

 in the effort to domesticate the camel in Texas. Major Wayne said : 



It gives me pleasure, Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, to comply with the request of my friends, and make a lew remarks 

 before you this evening, upon the experiment of introducing the Camel into 

 America. I esteem the opportunity offered fortunate, as I desire to enlist your 

 interests and sympathies in an undertaking possessing scientific interest, and 

 as I believe great practical benefit, prospectively, for our country. I may not be 

 able to add any thing to your Zoological knowledge, but I may inform you of 

 our purposes, and hope to secure the co-operation of a society so influential 

 and progressive as is yours. 



There have been previous attempts to introduce the Camel into the Western 

 Hemisphere, into South America, Mexico, the island of Jamaica, and according 

 to Mr. D. J. Browne, of the Patent Office, into our own Virginia in the year 

 1701. Of these attempts I have not met with any clear account, either as to 

 their origin, progress or failure. To preserve, to Zoological history, therefore, 

 the present effort, I will premise my remarks by a brief sketch of its rise and 

 progress. 



Shortly after the close of the war with Mexico, when our territory became 

 extended to the Pacific, the advantage of the uses of the Camel in our great 

 interior continent suggested itself to the mind of Col. Geo. H. Crosman, of the 

 Army, who communicated his views to myself and others. Examination of the 

 subject induced the belief that the animal would be of great use, beyond our 

 present means of transportation, (pack mules or wagons,) in carrying on trade 

 and communication through our own deserts ; and that even if, with the pro- 

 gressive spirit of our country, the iron rail and steed should unite the two 

 oceans, that there would be still to the North and to the South large regions to 

 be developed, and that this most profitably and readily could be accomplished by 

 the powers and endurance of the Camel. We saw Congress voting money 

 freely for this or that scheme for personal or local benefit, and we thought it not 

 unjustifiable to ask for $30,000 for an experiment broadly national in its charac- 

 ter, and of which the advantage, if successful, might be said to be incalculable. 

 A bill for the purpose was introduced into Congress by the Hon. Jefferson Davis, 

 cf Mississippi, then Chairman of the Military Committee, who entered waimlj' 

 into the measure, and who subsequently, as Secretary of War, brought it to a 

 successful conclusion. From 1848 to 1855, we struggled with varying fortunes. 

 Our contention was not with men of science. Had it been, no difBculties in the 

 way of an early practical test would have been interposed. But it was with 

 ignorance, prejudice and ridicule. Of the Camel, nothing was known popu- 

 larly. And its only use patent to our people, was to excite wonder and merri- 

 ment in our menageries. It is due, however, to the Military Committees of 

 both the Senate and House to say, that they unwaveringly supported the measure 

 throughout. And here let me add another tribute to that just read by your 

 Secretary, to the memory of one whose name and contributions to science are 

 now historical. I mean the late lamented Geo. R. Gliddon. He aided us 

 much by his knowledge of the East, of the Camel itself, of its uses, with which 

 he had been for many years practically acquainted in Egypt, and enabled us to 

 place the matter in the right point of view before Congress and the Press. The 

 experiment owes to his exertions much of its success. Without wearying you 

 with details, sufBce it to say, through the management of General Shields, of the 

 Senate, a bill was finally passed in favor of the experiment on the 3d of March, 

 1855, and soon after I was sent for by the Secretary of War, and charged by 

 him with the responsibility of conducting it. 



For my first studies, my attention had been given to Africa; but as I pro- 

 gressed, I found myself carried into Asia, and become satisfied that the animal 

 would be drawn from that country with greater chances of success. Taking up 

 Humboldt's Isothermal Lines, and studying the effects of geological structure 

 and topographical formation upon temperature, I carried into America a system 



[Decomberj 



