THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. Ill 



same time, and afterwards rode the same dromedary from a point op- 

 posite Cairo to Alexandria, a distance of about one hundred and fifty 

 miles. In thirty-four hours. But the most extraordinary well authenti- 

 cated performance of the dromedary Is that recorded by the accurate 

 Burckhardt, under whose personal observation it fell. In this Instance 

 the animal carried its rider one hundred and fifteen miles in eleven 

 hours, including twenty minutes spent in crossing and recrosslng the 

 Nile. Upon longer journeys the daily rate of the best dromedaries, 

 though not equal to these instances, is still extraordinar3\ A French 

 officer of high rank and character in the Egyptian service, assured me 

 thai he had ridden a favorite dromedary ninety miles in a single day, 

 and five hundred miles in ten. Mails have been carried from Bagdad 

 to Damascus, upon the same animals, four hundred and eighty-two 

 miles, in seven days ; and on one occasion, by means of regular relaj^s, 

 Mehemet All sent an express to Ibrahim Pasha, from Cairo to Antioch, 

 five hundred and sixty miles, in five days and a half. But the most 

 remarkable long journey on record is that of Col. Chesney, of the Brit- 

 ish army, who rode with three companions, and without change of 

 camel, from Basrah to Damascus, a distance of nine hundred and sixty 

 miles, in nineteen days and three or four hours, thus averaging fifty 

 miles per day, the animals having no food but such as they gathered 

 for themselves during the halts of the party. 



The gaits of the dromedary are all properly paces or am.bles; though 

 in racing I have seen them break into an irregular gallop, as they also 

 do for a short distance when hotly pursued by cavalry, and they then 

 outstrip the horse.* The motion of the burden camel and the slow 

 walk of the dromedary are necessarily violent, from the great length of 

 step, and at first very wearisome to the rider; but a few days' practice 

 accustoms him to this rough exercise, and he performs his day'sjourney 

 with as little exhaustion as upon horseback. The quicker movements 

 of the dromedary, at his average pace of five or five and a half miles 

 an hour are much easier and less fatiguing than his walk, and a day's 

 journey of fifty or sixty miles at this pace is an easy achievement. At 

 much more rapid rates, however, the motion becomes again intolerably 

 violent, and an inexperienced rider finds it almost impossible to cling 

 to the saddle, or even to catch his breath, though at the ordinary speed 

 the seat is more secure than on horseback. 



The burden of the ordinary camel varies with the age of the anlmnl, 

 his breed, and training, and it ranges from three hundred and fifty 

 or four hundred pounds for the lighter and more delicate of the Arabian 

 camels, to twelve, and for moderate distances even fifteen hundred 

 pounds for those bred by the Turcomans in Asia Minor. From six to 

 eight hundred pounds would be a safe average, according to the weight 

 of the animal and the smoothness or ruggedness of the route; and with 

 the smallest of these loads the ordinary camel would easily surmount 

 any mountain passes practicable to other beasts of" burden. The v/eight 

 of the pack-saddle, which is considerable, is excluded in these esti- 

 mates. In some parts of the East the Arabian camel is employed as a 

 beast of draught, and is even harnessed to the plough. I have seen 



* Carbuccia, 16, 77. Bergraann apud Ritter, XIII, 691. 



