THE DROMEDARY. 65 



so capacious and so convenient a receptacle, he can take a pro- 

 digious quantity of water at once, and remain many days with- 

 out drinking. 



When travellers find themselves greatly in want of water, it 

 is not unusual for them to kill a camel to obtain what its stomach 

 contains, which is always sweet and wholesome. Aristotle says, 

 that the camel always disturbs the water with its feet before it 

 drinks : if this be the case, which, it must be confessed, is very 

 doubtful, it is no doubt intended to drive away the almost innu- 

 merable swarms of insects, with which the waters of warm cli- 

 ' mates abound. 



Among all the forms of animal life, which Nature in her im- 

 mense variety exhibits, there is none that more conspicuously 

 displays the justness of design, and perfect adaptation to the cir- 

 cumstances of its existence, and to the service of man, than the 

 rein-deer and the camel ; without the former, life could not be 

 supported among the snowy mountains and frozen bogs of Lap- 

 land, and without the latter, fhe sandy deserts of Arabia would 

 be impassable. Few attempts have been made, to transplant the 

 rein-deer into more temperate regions ; but of these few, none 

 have yet succeeded : frequent trials have been made, to intro- 

 duce the camel into other countries, but without effect. Though 

 a native of a warm climate, the camel is not found in the tropical 

 regions : it cannot subsist and propagate, either in the suffocating 

 heat of the torrid, or the milder air of the temperate zone. The 

 rein-deer is confined to the hyperborean climates, and seems in- 

 capable of subsisting under a more genial sky. Both the one 

 and the other appear evidently designed by Providence, for the 

 servi e and solace of man, in those countries where no other 

 animals are qualified to supersede their utility. 



THE DROMEDARY 



Is not a different species, but only a distinct breed of the 

 camel. They herd and propagate together, and the production, 

 which is also prolific, is improved by various intermixtures, and 

 generally esteemed of greater value than either of the original 

 breeds. The Dromedary is inferior in size and strength, but 

 swifter in pace, and is beyond comparison more numerous, and 

 more extensively diffused, than the camel ; the latter being sel- 

 dom found, except in Arabia, and some parts of the Levant, 

 while the former extends over very spacious regions, and is com- 

 mon in Egypt, and all the northern parts of Africa, as well as in 

 Persia, and some parts of Tartary and India. But the pecu- 

 liarly distinguishing characteristic of the two races, is, that the 

 dromedary has two hunches on the back, while the camel has 

 only one : the former is also much swifter than the latter, and 



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