116 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



many who profess to know a great deal about the Egyptian drome- 

 dary that will not suit the climate of Texas at all, and under the 

 existence of these doubts it is, perhaps, well that we only procured a 

 limited number ; fortunately we have enough to decide the question 

 with, although my mind is fully made up that there will be no diffi- 

 culty at all in the acclimation. We have only to look into the history 

 of the Tuscan camels (which came from Barbary and Egypt) to con- 

 vince ourselves that the chance of succeeding with them in Texas is 

 very great. It is probable for the first winter or two they will require a 

 little extra care in stabling, which they are at all times as much 

 entitled to as a horse or a cow, and who is there in the United States 

 who does not give his horse and cow good shelter at all seasons? 

 This is what camels do not get in Egypt, and not very good shelter 

 in Turkey. Gentlemen who keep fine and expensive dromedaries to 

 ride, take good care of their beasts, but the majority are very badly 

 housed. In Egypt, the climate in winter is very equable, perhaps 

 the most so of any climate in the world, but I have seen one or two 

 days when the weather was extremely cold, more so than it would 

 ever be in Texas. The only covering the dromedary has in cold 

 weather is a very light open blanket. Those that I took on board at 

 Alexandria were, in six days after leaving port, transported from 31 

 degrees north latitude to nearly 40 degrees north, changing the 

 climate nearly ten degrees. And encountering at Smyrna a longer 

 and colder spell of bad weather than had been known there for some 

 years^ I think it pretty conclusive evidence that the dromedary is 

 not so tender an animal as it is represented to be. 



From what I have seen in Egypt and Asia Minor, I have come to 

 the conclusion that camels contract most of their diseases, to which 

 they are said to be subject, to want of attention to their comfort, and 

 to a total absence of cleanliness. Nothing can exceed the filth of a 

 Turkish or Egyptian "khan" (or stable) where camels are stowed 

 away, closely packed for the night ; the filth of ages seems to have 

 accumulated there, and the smell of ammonia is so strong that it is 

 painful to the olfactories. On board ship, on the camel deck there 

 was scarcely any odor perceptible, because the deck was kept con- 

 stantly scrubbed, and the white-wash brush kept going. It might 

 naturally be expected that some smell would be perceptible in a close 

 ship, but there is no excuse for it on shore. How can it be expected 

 that animals will keep healthy under such treatment ? I am con- 

 vinced that the itch (a complaint to which camels are more subject 

 than any other) is caused by the filth and ammonia in which they 

 lie down. It is a very uncommon thing in the city of Alexandria to 

 see a camel without the itch, (many of them are a mass of sores,) and 

 out of the fifteen dromedaries sent down from the villages for us to 

 select from, eight had the itch badly_, and two were doubtlul. I took 

 the latter, which I thought were slightly affected, otherwise we could 

 not have made up our number. I cured them^ however, in three 

 days, by applications of sulphur externally and internally. The Egyp- 

 tians seem to have no hesitation in offering dromedaries as a present 

 or for sale when they have the itch, as they do not seem to think the 

 complaint interlisres at all with their efficiency ; their remedy for the 



