122 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



on the wliole the more promising animal, might most readily be ob- 

 tained at Odessa, or in the Crimea ; but, as the camels of tho?e pro- 

 vinces are trained only for draught, it would be more advisable to pro- 

 cure them from the Calmucs, in the neighborhood of the Caspian, 

 where they are used for burden and for the saddle, and, according to 

 Bergmann, possess great speed, and they could be shipped at some of 

 the ports of the sea of Azovv, or they might perhaps, with even greater 

 convenience, be bought at Petropawlowsk, on the Pacific, at the sea- 

 son of the visit of the caravans, and landed in California. 



The dromedaries should be brought from Algeria rather than from 

 Egypt, because they are there accustomed to much severer winters, a 

 moister climate, and a rougher country ; and the experience of the 

 French military service in the use of them might be of great value in 

 aiding in the selection of the breeds or individual animals, as well as 

 in furnishing patterns of the best harness and gearing. The number of 

 each ought to be at least sufficient for the organization of a small regu- 

 lar corps, to be trained in the use of them, and the officers should be 

 provided with all the information which can be gathered from Asiatic 

 and European experience on the subject. 



"If," sa3^s General Marey Monge, "cavalry had been unknown in 

 France, antl we, seeing the great advantages derived from it by ihe 

 Arabs, had now for the first time attempted to introduce it into our 

 military service, we should have had a thousand difficulties to over- 

 come. Objections would have been made on the score of kicks and 

 bites, errors would have been committed in the choice of saddles and 

 bridles, the horses would have met with accidents or contracted ail- 

 ments li-om our want of experience and ignorance of farriery ; in the 

 first engagements, our mounted men would have been thrown or run 

 away with, they would have been clumsy in managing their arms on 

 horseback, and probably been roughly handled by the superior skill of 

 the Arab horsemen. A party would have been formed against the 

 innovators, who would themselves have become disgusted, and the 

 attempt to introduce mounted corps would perhaps have been aban- 

 doned ; but if, in spite of accidents, mistakes, and losses, we had per- 

 severed, we should have ended by forming what we have now, an 

 efficient and excellent cavahy." . 



This argument is as valid with us as it was in Algeria; and if the 

 experiment shall be tried in the United States without success, it will 

 probably fail for reasons as specious but as inconclusive as those which 

 General Monge supposes against the introduction of cavalry into the 

 French military service. 



Note. — A late writer in the Revue Orientale, 1280, says : "I knt^w 

 in Egypt a camel driver who had bought a dromedary belonging to a 

 sherit"of Mecca, deceased, at Cairo. This animal often made the trip 

 between the latter city and Suez, going and returning in twenty-four 

 hours, thus travelling a distance of sixty leagues in a single day." 

 [The perfi)rmance of the dromedary is rather understated. The actual 

 distance between Cairo and Suez is cigJuy-four English miles, and the 

 animal must consequently have accom|)lished one hundred and sixty- 

 eight miles in twenty-four hours. He remained four hours at Suez for 

 rest, and therefore travelled at the rate of eight miles and four tenths 

 per hour.] 



