94 THE CAMEL. 



and sitting d la Turque, on a very wavering and 

 unstable foundation. 



It is not the mere power of abstinence alone 

 that so eminently fits the camel for traversing 

 the steppe and the desert. His preference for the 

 brackish and even saline waters which almost 

 exclusively occur in those regions, and which are 

 often so highly impregnated with mineral sub- 

 stances as to be rejected by most other quadru- 

 peds, is a property almost as valuable. Russell 

 even states that he chooses salt water rather 

 than fresh, and Burckhardt^ affirms that both 

 camels and horses drink the sea- water left by 

 the ebb of the tide in the wadys communicating 

 with the Red Sea. I do not think, however, 

 that this is the common habit of the animal, for 

 I do not find it mentioned by other writers, and 

 I have seen them, when parched with thirst, rush 

 to the sea, wade into it, and turn from it, with 

 evident disappointment on finding it salt. 



The elder Pliny and some modern writers say 

 that the camel purposely makes the water turbid 

 before drinking, as has been alleged of the horse, 

 by stirring the mud at the bottom with the foot ; 

 but as neither of these quadrupeds can usually 

 reach the surface of a pool or river without wad- 

 ing into it, it is much more probable that the 

 disturbance of the fluid is an unintentional one. 



1 Syria, 661. 



