118 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



In the month of February, Erman saw, at Kiachta, on the Russo- 

 Chinese frontier, herds of camels in the open air, feeding on withered 

 and frozen wild vegetables, at a temperature of 25 degrees below zero 

 of Fahrenheit, and remarks that they fear neither the severe winter of 

 Siberia nor the parching summer heats of the sand-wastes of the desert 

 of Gobi. The alternation of thaw and frost alone, says he, is danger- 

 ous to them, in consequence of the icy crust formed under such circum- 

 stances, which wounds their feet and limbs. 



So numerous is the camel in these frozen realms, that almost the 

 whole commerce between Russia and China, by way of Kiachta, is 

 carried on by means of them; and they transport merchandise over the 

 whole of the vast distance between Orenburg on the Ural, and Petro- 

 pawlowsk on the peninsula of Kamtschntka. In the month of October, 

 Timkowski met on the desert of Gobi, in latitude 46°, and at the 

 height of 2,500 feet above the sea, a herd of 20,000 camels; the Rus- 

 sian expedition against Khiva and Bokhara, in 1840, employed more 

 than an equal number; and Berghaus estimates the number of camels 

 in European Russia at not less than 100,000. 



So far, then, as climate and soil are concerned, it may be regarded 

 as quite certain that the Bactrian camel can sustain any exposure to 

 which he would be subjected in our trans-Mississippian territory; 

 and there is no reason to doubt that the mezquit, acacia, c.nd other 

 shrubs, and the saline plants known to exist in many of those regions, 

 would furnish him an appropriate and acceptable nutriment. 



I cannot speak with equal confidence of the abihty of the Arabian 

 camel, and especially of the maherry of the desert, to bear correspond- 

 ing trials. All high-bred animals are dehcate, and impatient of expo- 

 sure to great extremes and sudden changes; and although Denham 

 and Clapperton speak of hard frosts in latitude 13° north, and Lyon 

 records a temperature four degrees below the freezing point, in districts 

 constantly traversed by the maherry, yet the finest and fleetest animals 

 will not bear the winter climate of Algiers.* But, although we may 

 not be able to breed dromedaries of a speed equal to the most extraor- 

 dinary performances I have described, there is no reason to doubt that 

 the more common animal, which will travel eight or ten hours a day at 

 five miles an hour, for many days in succession, and with greater speed 

 for a shorter period, can be bred and used with advantage throughout 

 our southwestern territories, and on all the more southern passes of the 

 mountains which divide the valley of the Mississippi from the Pacific 

 slope, as well as throughout the State of California. 



The ancient Asiatics, and, at a later period, the Romans, made a 

 very extensive use of the dromedary in war, not only for the transpor- 

 tation of men and munitions, but as technical cavalry in actual com- 

 bat; and they are still employed in Persia, Bokhara, and Tartary, for 

 military purposes, and especially for the conveyance of light pieces of 

 artillery, which are mounted between the humps, and used in that posi- 

 tion, the camel kneeling while the gun is loaded, aimed, and fired. In 

 modern European armies they have hardly been employed, except by 

 Napoleon, in transporting the baggage of his army in the Syrian cam- 



* Carbuccia, 4. 



