174 THE CAMEL. 



So numerous is the camel in these frozen 

 reahns, that almost the whole commerce be- 

 tween Russia and China, by way of Kiachta, is 

 carried on by means of them ; and they trans- 

 port merchandise over the vast distance between 

 Orenburg on the Ural, and Petropawlowsk on 

 the peninsula of Kamtschatka. In the month 

 of October, Timkovski met on the desert of 

 Gobi, in latitude 46 '^, and at the height of 

 2,500 feet above the sea, a herd of 20,000 cam- 

 els ; the Russian expedition against Khiva and 

 Bokhara, in 1840, employed more than an equal 

 number ; and Berghaus estimates the number 

 of camels in European Russia at not less than 

 100,000. 



Father Hue's lively narrative of his travels in 

 Tartary is full of similar proofs of the power of 

 the Bactrian to brave the icy frosts and chilling 

 blasts of that frigid region, and we may reason- 

 ably conclude that the camel is able to endure 

 the gi-eatest extremes of temperature known in 

 climates habitable by civilized man. 



The range of countries through which the 

 camel is spread, has been greatly extended 

 within the historical period, and even within 

 comparatively recent times. I have already 

 alluded to the fact of his late introduction into 

 the African continent, where, although he can- 

 not be said to have been unknown, he certainly 



