90 THE CAMEL. 



seen are those of the official reports of the 

 French officers attached to the dromedary corps 

 in Algeria. One of these reports declares that 

 the camels of the corps employed in the expedi- 

 tion of El Aghouat did not drink from February 

 to May, though the weather was very hot;^ and 

 General Carbuccia, the commander of the corps, 

 states that the Algerine camel never drinks 

 during the last two months of autumn, and the 

 entire winter and spring. He adds,^ " at the 

 beginning of summer, he drinks, and then 

 abstains fifteen days. After having drunk 

 again, he goes fourteen days without water, 

 then thirteen, then twelve, &c., and finally seven 

 days, diminishing gradually his periods of absti- 

 nence By a day. After this, he drinks every 

 seven days, and not oftener, whatever may be 

 the heat, or the fatigues of the journey." Un- 

 fortunately for the credit of this remarkable story, 

 Carbuccia ^ himself, p. 159, contradicts it, by stat- 

 ing that when the camel feeds on the guettaf, 

 a saline shrub, he drinks every day from the 15th 

 of June to the end of winter. Burnes says that 

 in Bokhara he goes two or three days without 

 water, but becomes feeble, and finally dies on 

 the fourth day, or sooner if the weather is hot. 



1 ' Meme par les plus fortes chaleurs.' Carbuccia, p. 204. 



2 Du Dromadaire, p. 15. 3 lb. 159. 



