THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 103 



Some writers describe the Bactrian as upon the whole smaller and weaker 

 than the Arabian ; but as others state the contrary, the difference in 

 this respect is probably not great. It seems well settled that in coun- 

 tries where the two species exist together, the cross, though inferior to 

 the dromedary in speed, is found to be a more powerful, and for general 

 purposes a more serviceable animal than either of the unmixed races, 

 as possessing in a good degree the most valuable properties of both.* 



The general anatomy of the camel is the same as that of other 

 luminanls ; but the hump, the horizontal posture of the head, the direc- 

 tion of the eye, the power of closing the nostril, the callosities upon 

 the breast and legs, the spreading and cushioned foot, and above all 

 the curious structure of the stomach, to which he owes his most valua- 

 ble properly, the power of long abstinence from water, distinguish him 

 from all other quadrupeds. The hump is simply a fleshy, or rather 

 fatty, protuberance upon the back, like that of the bison, unsupported 

 by any special bony process, and it is least developed in the highest 

 bred animals, so that the maherry of the Sahara is popularly described 

 as being without that appendage. The fullness of the protuberance, 

 however, depends much upon the condition of the animal. The state 

 of the hump is a test constantly referred to in the sale or hire of the 

 camel, and the jocke^^s resort to various contrivances to give it an un- 

 natural plumpness and solidity, t When the camel has been, for a length 

 of time, full fed, and subjected to moderate labor only, the hump as- 

 sumes a greater plumpness of tcJrm and hardness of texture ; but if ill kept 

 or overworked, the fat of the hump is absorbed, and the protuberance 

 becomes flaccid, and is sometimes even reduced to little more than its 

 skin. It seems to serve as a repository of nutriment, and the absorption 

 ol its substance into the general system appears to be one of the 

 special arrangements by which the camel is so admirai)ly fitted for the 

 lite of privation to which he is destined. | 



The head of the camel, especially of those of the Bisharye and 

 Ababdeh breeds, is carried high and nearly horizontal ; and this cir- 

 cumstance, with the length and curvature of the neck, and the outline 

 ot the arched back, creates so strong a general resemblance between 

 this quadruped and the ostrich, that the latter is called by the Arabs 

 the camel-bird. The eye is projecting, sheltered above by a very 

 salient bony arch, and its axis is nearly parallel to that of the head, 

 though with a slight inclination towards it anteriorly. From this con- 

 formation of the organ, the sight of the animal is habitually directed 

 rather downwards than Ibrward, to the ground upon which he is just 

 about to tread than to the distance. It is, in a great degree, to this 

 structure, as I believe, that his remarkable sure-footedness is to be 

 attributed. The eye always scans the surface where the foot is next 

 to be placed ; and in moving about among the scattered luggage and 



*See a valuable paper, extracted from the notes of General Harlan, in the Report of the 

 American Patent Office for 1853, Agriculture, p. 61. According to Hitter, Erdkundo XIII, 

 646, and the authorities there cited, tlie word IJooghdee, used by General Harlan to designate 

 the cross between the Bactrian and Arabian, means the young male Bactrian. General Har- 

 lan's testimony in favor of the strength and power of endurance of the mixed breed is exceed- 

 ingly strong ; but he appears to undervalue the pure Bactrian, which is certainly found 

 extremely serviceable in European and Asiatic Russia, both for drauglit and burden, and in 

 those countries, at least, is almost wholly exempt from disease. Fraser, Khorasan, 273. 

 fTavernicr : Voyages, I. 132. 1 Carbuccia, 10. 



