24 THE CAMEL. 



the conditions of each to those of the other. 

 Designing the camel to inhabit regions where 

 he could find but a scanty supply of nourish- 

 ment, nature has been economical of material 

 in his whole organization. She has not given 

 him the fulness of form of the ox, the horse, or 

 the elephant, but limiting him to the purely in- 

 dispensable, she has bestowed upon him a small 

 head, almost without external ears, supported by 

 a fleshless neck. She has stripped his thighs 

 and legs of every muscle not essential to their 

 movements, and has furnished his dry and meagre 

 body with only the vessels and tendons required 

 to knit its framework together. She has supplied 

 him with a powerful jaw to crush the hardest 

 aliments; but that he might not consume too 

 much, she has narrowed his stomach and made 

 him a ruminant. She has cushioned his foot 

 with a mass of muscle, which, sliding in mud, 

 and ill adapted for climbing, unfits him for every 

 soil but a dry, even, and sandy surface, like that 

 of Arabia. She has condemned him to servi- 

 tude, by refusing him all means of defence 

 against his enemies. Possessing neither the horns 

 of the ox, the hoof of the horse, the tusks of the 

 elephant, nor the speed of the stag, how can he 

 resist the attacks^ of the lion, the tiger, or even 

 the wolf ? Nature, therefore, to save the species 

 from extirpation, has hidden him in the bosom 



