CHAPTER XIII 



THE CARAVAN. 



" For the purposes of general observation, 

 camel-riding is the most advantageous of all 

 possible means of conveyance. The slowness 

 and regularity of your rate of progress, the ele- 

 vation of your seat, which gives you a wide range 

 of vision, and (no trilling matter in the parched 

 desert) secures you the full benefit of every 

 breeze that blows, and your entire exemption 

 from the necessity of guiding or even watching 

 the movements of your beast, afford you the 

 greatest facilities for studying the aspect of the 

 country, and enjoying the unrivalled sublimity 

 of the mountain ranges which in the Arabian 

 and most other deserts, you so often skirt or tra- 

 verse. With a special attendant too, whom 

 you can call upon to pick up a stone, or gather 

 some curious plant, or, upon occasion, to bring 

 your camel to a halt, that you may take a sketch 

 or record an observation, or dismount and ex- 

 amine for yourself some tempting vein of mineral 

 or other interesting object, you wiU have every 



