80 THE CAMEL. 



as a material for water-sacks. The goat-skin — 

 of which they are generally made as a matter 

 of convenience, because, when you have stripped 

 off the skin whole, and tied up the apertures, the 

 sack is ready without a stitch — is so porous 

 that the water transpires freely, and soon be- 

 comes exhausted, if the sack is exposed to the 

 sun or to drying winds. The skin of the camel 

 is of different degrees of thickness and of 

 strength, according to age and breed ; and while 

 some travellers compare it to that of the horse, 

 I am assured that, in the provinces of southern 

 Russia, where it is principally used raw for 

 thongs, straps, and the like, it is not greatly 

 inferior to that of the ox in toughness and dura- 

 bility. In Arabia, it is tanned and dyed yellow 

 with the peels of the pomegranate, or red with 

 a root found in the desert. In Algeria, accord- 

 ing to Carbuccia, it is thicker and more valuable 

 than that of the ox. 



The tallow, when rendered, is as white as 

 wax, and as a material for candles scarcely infe- 

 rior to that substance.^ I do not learn that the 

 bones have been applied to any useful purpose, 

 but from the apparent solidity of the skeletons, 

 which lie scattered along the great desert routes, 

 I have little doubt they would be found useful 



1 Ritter xiii. 693. Carbuccia, p. 142. 



