PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 31 



adjusting to it a pack-'saddle, and without one there is always more 

 or less perplexity in loading and securing the load. This I rather 

 think is the principal source of objection to its use, though I believe 

 the opinion advanced to us to be correct, that it is not as serviceable 

 an animal as the Arabian. Its use in the Crimea before the war we 

 understood to be chiefly for draught, and on one occasion we saw two 

 yoked to a Tartar wagon as oxen are, but guided by rope reins. The 

 result of our examination determined us not to procure one, as it 

 would only complicate our experiment without producing such results 

 as we anticipate from the Arabian stock. At some future day, should 

 the camel become domesticated with us, it may then be worth while 

 to import a few males for crossing upon the Arabian females, as it is 

 said is done with advantage in Persia ; the issue always taking after 

 the mother, that is being one humped. Sketches of the Bactrian 

 camel were made by Mr. Heap, which will convey very clear ideas of 

 the animal and of its difference from the Arabian. 



Colonel McMurdo informed me that in the expedition againts Sinde 

 he had in service about twenty-five thousand camels, and that from 

 his experience he esteemed them highly; so much so, that he had then 

 at Sinope three thousand of them, in addition to the few now in use 

 in the Crimea, in readiness for the campaign next spring. 



The loads they will carry depend much, he said, upon the service 

 in which they are employed, rapid movements naturally requiring 

 light burdens ; but their average loads, under favorable circumstances, 

 he stated to be about six hundred pounds, and these they will carry 

 easily, without pushing, twenty-five or thirty miles a day. He men- 

 tioned the interesting fact, which I do not remember to have heard be- 

 fore, that during the expedition against Sinde, General Napier or- 

 ganized a most efficient corps of one thousand men, mounted upon five 

 hundred dromedaries, two men to each dromedary, the men sitting 

 back to back, one facing the head the other the tail^ and both armed 

 with rifles and sabres. The man facing the head was the animal's 

 groom and driver, and the manner of using the corps was as follows: 

 Upon arriving at the scene of operations the dromedaries were made 

 to kneel in square, under the charge of their five hundred drivers, 

 forming as it were a base of operations from which the other five hun- 

 dred operated as infantry. As the advanced body moved, the square 

 or squares, if more than one was formed, if required, were also moved ; 

 and in case of extremity, the square offered a cover under which the 

 one thousand men could find comparative shelter behind the animals, 

 who were prevented from rising by a hobble on the foreleg, and use 

 their rifles most effectively. This corps. Colonel McMurdo informed me, 

 could be readily marched seventy miles in any direction in twelve 

 hours, (5 i; miles per hour,) and rendered throughout the campaign most 

 efficient service. 



General Simpson stated that in the samecampaign he found the camel 

 so serviceable that he procured five or six for his personal use, and 

 that with them he frequently went seventy miles between sunset 

 and sunrise. To a direct question by Major Delafield, (whom we 

 met at the Crimea,) whether he would not have preferred the best 

 English horses to camels, could he have obtained them, the general 



