PUKCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 51 



whom I met on board the frigate Congress at Alexandria, a very fa- 

 vorable comparison of the camels of the Canaries with those of Smyrna^ 

 instituted from a general observation of the animal in both places. 

 The desired information, though, can be obtained by forwarding to 

 our consul at Palmas, through- the State Department, a copy of the 

 circular letter of inquiry, enclosed to you in my communication of 

 the 5th October, 1855, and requesting him to embrace in his replies, 

 particularly, the camels of the four islands, Teneriffe, Gran Canaria^ 

 Fuerte Yentura, and Sanzerote. Permit me to recommend this course 

 to your attention, as the comparative nearness of these islands to the 

 United States will render transportation from them proportionably 

 easy, should the quality and power of the animal in them warrant 

 its importation into America. With this preface^ I will now proceed 

 to the brief general view of the camel. 



THE CAMEL. 



Although among the domestic animals earliest mentioned in the 

 history of man,* yet, from its limited use to a small zone of the earth, 

 but little is known in the world at large of the nature, qualities, dis- 

 eases and anatomy of the camel, and we find many vague and erro- 

 neous ideas in regard to it prevailing even among those classes 

 generally well informed in zoology. The limits of " camel land" — 

 that is, where the camel has been known and used — are said by John- 

 son, in his Physical Atlas, to lie between the 15th and 52d degrees of 

 north latitude, and the 15tli degree of longitude west of Greenwich 

 to about the 120th degree east of it. The animal, then, is not one of 

 the torrid zone, as is often supposed, but rather of the north temperate. 

 Indeed, it suffers' as much, if not more, from great heat as it does 

 from intense cold. 



" Camel land," according to Johnson, embraces the Canaries, Mo- 

 rocco^ Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, the Great Desert back of these coun- 

 tries, and Egypt, on the continent of Africa ; Arabia, Turkey in Asia, 

 Persia, Cabool, Beloochistan_, Hindoostan, Birmah, Thibet, Mongolia, 

 a small portion of the southern part of Siberia, and Independent 

 Tartary, in Asia ; the Crimea, and a small tract of country around 

 and near Constantinople^ in Europe. For two hundred years the 

 camel has existed also in Tuscany, not in general use, but on the pri- 

 vate estates of the Grand Duke at Pisa.f 



To this small zone has the use of the camel been confined ; and 

 though efforts have been made, as stated by several writers, to extend 

 its usefulness to the western world, even to our own Virginia, as re- 

 ported by D. J. Browne, esq., as early as 1701, | they have all proved 



-See Genesis xii c, 16 v. "And he entreated Abraham well for her sake ; and he had 

 sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and men servants, and maid servants, and she asses, and 

 camels." 



See the pamphlet of Griiehurg de Hemso, for an interesting account of .their introduc- 

 tion and use. 



See his article on the importation of camels, in the Patent Office Report, part 2d, Agri- 

 culture, for 1853, p. 61, and which gives besides much interesting and useful information. 



