102 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



which is pretty certainly of the Arabian stock, and of comparatively 

 late introduction into that continent;* but this conjecture does not 

 appear to be supported by any direct historical or physiological evi- 

 dence. The scientific specific designation of the one-humped camel is 

 not well chosen. The term dromaa, as applied to the camel by the an- 

 cients, was not used to indicate a specific difference. The camclus dro- 

 mas was what the proper dromedary is now, that is, simply a running, or 

 swiit camel, used chiefly or altogether for the saddle ; and he might be, 

 as he may be still, of either species, Bactrian or Arabian. In fact, any 

 light-built, easy-paced, and swift-fooled camel, of whatever species or 

 variety, is a dromedary ; though there are certain breeds, in which the 

 slender head, tall short body, small hump, clean limbs, and generally 

 livelier color, which characterizes the stock, have become hereditary, 

 just as similar pecuharities of form are perpetuated in the thorough-bred 

 hunter and race-horse. In popular phraseology, the term dromedary 

 has been to a considerable extent applied to designate a camel with 

 two humps, from an erroneous supposition that the swift ridmg-camel 

 (deloul al heiri or maherry of the Arabs, haguin or hedjin of the Egyp- 

 tians) was of that species. This mistake appears to have originated 

 in a misinterpretation of a passage of Aristotle by Sohnus and Theodore 

 Gaza; and the error, though exposed and corrected by Gesner, three 

 hundred years ago, autl by almost every naturalist who has since 

 described the animal, continues to influence the language, and mislead 

 the popular opinion of the nineteenth century. 



The varieties comprehended under each of the two species are 

 numerous ; but they do not diftt:"r fi-om each other in size, in form, or 

 in speed, more widely than the breeds of the common horse. Indeed 

 the anatomical differences between the Arabian and the Bactrian camel 

 are so sHght, that some naturalists have maintained their specific iden- 

 tity; and it appears to be certain that the common physiological test of 

 specific difference, the incapacity, namely, of the cross to propagate, 

 does not hold good as applied to this animal.t The skeletf)ns of the 

 two species are distinguishable, if at all, only by a slight difference of 

 proportion; and the visceral structure being tne ,. Tie in both, the only 

 tbundation for a specific distinction appears to be in the number of 

 humps. In the living animal, the species are readily distinguished by 

 tlieir outward peculiarity; and besides their obvious difference, the Bac- 

 trian is shorter limbed and much more hairy than the Arabian camel. 



*Minutoli thinks he recognises the head of the camel among the figures upon an obelisk at 

 Luxor. Upon the walls of some of the smaller apartments of tlie great temple of Karnac 

 are carved heads, which certainly appea r to me to resemble that of tliis animal more closely tiian 

 of an^' other quadruped ; and St John (Adventures in the Libyan Desert, Chap. XI I) says 

 he found the camel among the sculptures of the temple at the oasis of Jupiter Anunon. But 

 modern Egyptologists consider some of these figures to represent the head of the lion, others 

 tliat of the giraffe, and it is certain that no part of ti)e skeleton of the camel has been met 

 with in the catacombs. Although it appears from Strabo, tliat the tribes of the desert an- 

 cientl}' employed the camel in the transport of merchandise between Captos and Berenice, 

 as they do now between Cairo and Suez, yet tliere is abundant evidence to show tliat tiiis 

 animal was not used by tlin proper Egyptians before the timeof the Ptolemies, nor does it appear 

 to have been known upon the Barbary coast until a much later period. See Ritter's essay, 

 Ueber die geographische \'erbreitung des Kameels, Erdkunde XII 1, where this question, and 

 almost all others belonging to the geographical distribution of the camel, are discussed wit'.i 

 the usual learning and ability of tliat great writer. 



■[ Ritter, Erdkunde XIU, G59. 



