194 THE GIRAFFE— CAMEL— BUFFALO 



a regular and abundant supply of food, the hump shortly regains its 

 former plumpness, and not until it is again firm and strong is the 

 animal allowed to return to its work. 



However, this is not the only case in which an animal feeds, so 

 to speak, upon its own flesh. Most of the animals which pass the 

 winter in sleep, as in the case of the bear, do so, for instance, for they 

 lay up large stores of fat before their winter sleep comes on, and 

 absorb it by slow degrees into their bodies as the time passes away. 

 They live for several months upon their own fat, indeed, just as the 

 camel lives upon its hump. You will think that they must require very 

 little food, if they can exist for so long upon the food stored up in 

 their bodies. The fact is, that while they are sleeping away the winter 

 they scarcely breathe at all, and the less air that an animal breathes 

 the less food it requires. The actual amount of nourishment, indeed, 

 upon which a hedgehog or a dormouse can subsist during its winter 

 sleep would hardly be sufficient to feed it even for three or four days 

 during the summer. 



The camel must be able to endure long-continued thirst. 



Look at its stomach, and see how this is made possible. Like 

 that of all animals which "chew the cud," such as the cow and the 

 sheep, the stomach of the animal is divided into no less than four 

 compartments. The first, which is called the paunch, or rumen, — 

 whence the name of the family, the ruminants or cud chewers — re- 

 ceives the food as soon as it is swallowed, but does not digest it. \Mien 

 the animal has time to masticate it. this food is returned to the mouth, 

 but passes first into the second division, which is known as the honey- 

 comb bag. In this part of the stomach the food is divided into balls, 

 one of which at a time is sent back to the mouth, where it is thoroughly 

 chewed, and then passed into the third compartment, which is called 

 the manyplies, and which, in the camel, is almost wholly wanting. 

 Lastly, it is sent into the fourth compartment, termed the reed, which 

 '«; the true digestive stomach. 



Still, however, we have not learned how the camel can live for 

 so long without requiring to drink. 



The fact is, that the cells in the second division of the stomach, 

 which has earned for it the name of the "honeycomb bag," are very 



