PREFACE 



The practicability and expediency of introducing 

 the camel into the United States having long since en- 

 gaged my attention as a problem of much economical 

 interest, I availed myself of the facilities afforded by a 

 late residence of someyears in the Turkish empire, to 

 investigate the subject more fully than it had been in 

 my power to do in this country. Several months of 

 travel in Egypt, Nubia, Arabia Petrsea and Syria, pre- 

 sented opportunities for a good deal of personal obser- 

 vation, and I occasionally saw the Turcoman camel, 

 and others of northern breeds, employed at different 

 points in Asia Minor, and sometimes at Constantinople. 

 I also gathered such information as I was able by in- 

 quiry and correspondence, and by consulting the books 

 of travel and natural history to which I had access. 

 By these means, I arrived at a strong persuasion of the 

 probable success of a judiciously conducted attempt to 

 naturalize in the new world this oldest of domestic 

 quadrupeds, and at the same time I collected most of 

 the materials which compose the following pages. Since 

 my return to the United States, I have added to my 



