PUKCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 21 



Hotel du Khin, Paris, July 8, 1855. 



General : I have tlie honor to acknowledge the receipt yesterday 

 of your communication of the 6th instant, and to beg you to accept 

 my thanks for your pamphlet upon the acclimation of the camel in 

 France, which it enclosed. 



I have read your pamphlet with much interest, and have derived 

 from it information that will be valuable to me in the experiment I 

 am about to conduct. My previous researches led me to nearly the 

 same conclusions in regard to acclimating the African camel in 

 America, and turned me to an examination of the animal in its 

 various conditions in Asia. There I found the Arabian, or camel 

 with one hump, extensively used from China to the Black and Medi- 

 terranean seas, and from India to the 50th degree of north latitude, 

 traversing a country very similar in geological structure, in climate, 

 and in changes of temperature, to that portion of America in which 

 we purpose to introduce him. As I proceeded in my investigations 

 I found many parts of Asia Minor and Persia corresponding so closely 

 with portions of Texas, New Mexico and California, in all the essen- 

 tials for camel life, that to them I have directed my attention, as the 

 region whence the animal may be transported to America with the 

 greatest probabilities of success. 



That I may not be misunderstood, I will state that I have adopted 

 the classification of the camel into two kinds : the Bactrian, or camel 

 with two humps, which is found in Tartary and the northern portions 

 of central Asia ; and the Arabian, or camel with one hump, which is 

 found in Persia, Asia Minor, Arabia, India, &c.; regarding the word 

 dromedary, as its derivation indicates, as simply the swift courser or 

 racer, in distinction from the camel of burden. 



With this classification in view, you will understand me when I 

 say that it is the intention of my government to domesticate, if pos- 

 sible, in America, the Arabian camel, including both the beast of 

 burden and the dromedary. To the appropriation by Congress for the 

 purpose, the President of the United States has added a vessel of our 

 navy, expressly fitted for the purpose, and manned by officers and 

 crew of our navy, the commander being associated with me to super- 

 intend the transportation of the animals across the seas. The vessel 

 has been arranged with much care to carry thirty camels, and is now 

 on her way to the Mediterranean, whither I proceed in a few days to 

 join her. As it will not do, in an experiment of this kind, to run 

 any unnecessary risks, it is our intention to avoid transporting the 

 camels to America in the winter or stormy months, but to wait for 

 the more genial season of spring ; and in the intervening time to oc- 

 cupy ourselves with a practical study of the animal at Salonica, 

 Beyrout, Smyrna, and as far in the interior of Asia as its present 

 disturbed state will permit. 



The ex|)eriment possesses much of scientific interest, as well as 

 commercial and political importance. Its object being to introduce a 

 new animal into the heart of our continent, where there are neither 

 navigable rivers nor practicable roads, and by means of it to hold in 

 check the wandering tribes of Indians that are constantly vvarring 



