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from, instead of with, our camp. The following morning, the 

 General Commanding the Division, rode out to look at them, his 

 staff of course being in attendance. Beyond the general direction, 

 we did not know where the corps was encamped and, on reaching 

 a part of the plain from which we expected to see them, we fancied 

 we had made a mistake in our ground, as not a camel was visible. 

 Suddenly I caught sight of them, drawn up as before mention- 

 ed, but the four hundred soldiers in their " kakee" or dust-colored 

 clothing and the same number of camels in their dusty, sandy or 

 russet grey coloring, seated quietly on the plain, were all so much 

 the color of the bare red plain on which they were posted and of 

 some small hill behind them, that it was almost impossible at the dis- 

 tance of half a mile or eight hundred yards to tell what was there. 



Buffon's conjectures, that the extraordinary callosities about 

 camels, having been originally produced by ill-usage on the part of 

 man, have been transmitted by descent, are so little known and 

 withal so quaintly interesting that I do not hesitate to enter them 

 here : 



" If we reflect on the dissimilarity in this animal from other 

 quadrupeds, we cannot doubt that his nature has been considerably 

 changed by constraint, slavery, and perpetual labor. Of all animals 

 the Camel is the most antient, the completest, and the most labori- 

 ous slave. He is the most antient slave, because he inhabits those 

 climates where men were first polished. He is the most complete 

 slave, because in the other species of domestic animals, as the horse, 

 the dog, the ox, the sheep, the hog, &c., we still find individuals in 

 a state of nature, and which have not submitted to man. But the 

 whole species of the Camel is enslaved ; for none of them exist in 

 their primitive state of liberty and independence. Lastly, he is the 

 most laborious slave ; because he has never been nourished for pomp, 

 like most horses, nor for amusement, like most dogs, nor for the 

 use of the table, like the ox, the hog, and the sheep ; because he 

 has always been made a beast of burthen, whom men have never 

 taken the trouble of yoking in machines, but have regarded the 

 body of the animal as a living carriage, which they may load, or 

 overload, even during sleep ; for when pressed, the load is some- 

 times not taken off, but the animal lies down under it with his legs 



