THE SHIP OF THE DESERT. 



217 



4. " A camel laden with five or six hundred pounds' 

 weight will travel eight or ten leagues a day under a burn- 

 ing sun with no other food than a few handfuls of grain, 

 a small number of dates, or a little pellet of maize-paste. 

 It will go ten days without drinking; but when it ap- 

 proaches a pool it scents it at a great distance, redoubles 

 its pace, eagerly pushes for the coveted necessary of life, 

 and drinks for the past, the present, and, alas ! too often 

 for a long future." 



5. The faculty which the camel possesses of dispens- 

 ing with water for a long time is due to the fact that it 

 carries internally a reservoir of water, which it uses in 

 case of necessity. The digestive organs, like that of other 

 ruminants, is composed of 



four different stomachs. 

 There is also a bag which 

 is divided into cubical re- 

 ceptacles or reservoirs for 

 water. The ability to en- 

 dure a long time without 

 food is explained by the 

 hump on the camel's back. 

 This hump incloses a large 

 amount of fat, which is 

 absorbed by the hungry 

 system and operates as 

 nourishment. After a 

 long and weary joumey 

 the hump collapses and 

 the animal grows thin. 



6. From the descrip- 

 tion of George William 



~ . The Camel's Head. 



Curtis we learn that "a 



camel excites no sentiment or affection in the Western, 



