THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 119 



paign, ill his celebrated dromedary regiment ; and, more recently, by 

 the army of occupation in Algeria. Upon the march from Egypt to 

 Syria, the baggage, the camp equipage, and the sick,* of an army of 

 15,000 men, were transported solely by camels. 



It is remarkable that the military archives of France furnish little or 

 no information, beyond the mere number of the corps, respecting the 

 dromedary regiment of the army of Egypt, the historical documents 

 belonging to the subject having been chiefly lost or suppressed ; and all 

 we know concerning it is derived from an imperfect and erroneous ac- 

 count in the great work on Egypt, and a late paper by Gourard, one of 

 the savans who accompanied the expedition. Without entering into 

 minute detail, it must suffice to say that this regiment, which num- 

 bered something less than 500 men, was organized in the main like a 

 regiment of cavalry, and performed the same general service, witli the 

 most brilliant success. Although ihe men were taken from the infantry, 

 a very short time was required to teach them the new discipline and 

 drill, and the animals were habituated to the necessary evolutions in an 

 incredibly short space of time. The services rendered by the corps 

 were of a most important character, and its performances, according to 

 Pretat, were quite unprecedented in military annals. This officer 

 states that the ordinary march of the regiment was thirty French 

 leagues, or about seventy-five miles, without a halt ; and that a detach- 

 ment belonging to it marched six hundred miles in eight days. These 

 latter extraordinary statements rest on the testimony of a single indi- 

 vidual, and though the corps was composed wholly of picked animals 

 and picked men, and animated by the energy of a Bonaparte, it is very 

 difficult to yield them full credence. 



The experiments in Algeria, though satisfactor}^ to the officers 

 charged with them, whose reports seem entirely conclusive upon the 

 value and economy of the camel as an animal of war, have been 

 attended with less brilliant results. The prejudices of the officers and 

 men against the use of this awkward and ungraceful animal in the 

 regular service have proved very difficult to overcome. The peculiar 

 organization of the French commissariat has interposed serious pecu- 

 niary obstacles, and the government has always seemed disinclined to 

 consider this question in a spirit of liberality and candor. It is, how- 

 ever, proved that the use of the dromedary contributes in a most 

 important degree to the economy, the celerity, and the efficiency of 

 military movements in desert regions; and I cannot doubt that it would 

 prove a most powerful auxiliary in all measures tending to keep in 

 check the hostile Indians on the fi-ontier, as well as in maintaining the 

 military and postal communication between our Pacific territory and 

 the east. 



There are few more imposing spectacles than a body of armed men 

 advancing under the quick pace of the trained dromedary ; and this 

 sight, with the ability of the animal to climb ascents impracticable to 



* For the transportation of the wounded the camel is not so suitable, on account of the 

 roughness of his motion; but, for even these, the tachlirawan, or litter borne by two camels, 

 would probably answer. Invalids often travel, as I have witnessed, in a cajava, or, as it is 

 fsometimes called, a mahafa. Tiiis consists of a pair of boxes or frames, properly with a can- 

 vass sacking-, five feet lonw, two wide, and two deep, slung across the pack-saddle, and pro- 

 tected by an awning. A strong camel will carry two persons in this way. 



