soil prove serious impediments, because camels cannot do much 

 in the way of jumping, except occasionally performing some 

 awkward and grotesque gambols. 



One great desideratum in a ti'ansport animal is that he be 

 capable of use in various ways ; the camel can hardly be con- 

 sidered very inferior in this respect. Besides sowari and pack 

 work he carries small guns or will drag larger ones ; he is used 

 in high, peculiar, double-storey carriages (in the Punjab for 

 example). General Gordon writes that camels are used for 

 ploughing in Turkey, and that they make excellent tramway 

 animals ! The products of camels are most useful — fuel, milk, 

 excellent hair for shawls, cloths, and various fabrics, both coarse 

 and fine, are obtained from the living animal ; tlesh-food, leather, 

 bones, and various other useful substances from the dead. No 

 part of the dead camel should go to waste. In camel cou.ntries 

 these animals are used to afford amusement by combats, running 

 races, or are trained to special performances, such as dancing. 

 The adaptations of the camel to the desert which is its home are 

 numerous and evident. Among others they are his height giving 

 wide range of vision ; his length of neck enabling him to reacli 

 far on either side of the track to the shrubs suited as food ; ears 

 very small, and nostrils capable of closure to keep out the sand ; 

 eyes prominent and protected by an overhanging upper lid, 

 limiting vision upwards and guarding from too powerful rays 

 of the sun ; his horny pads to rest on when he lies in the hot 

 sand ; his peculiarly cushioned feet ; his hump or reserve store 

 of nutriment; his water reservoirs in connection with the 

 stomach ; his patient, plodding habits. It is a great mistake to 

 consider the camel ugly. ''Handsome is who handsome does" 

 applies well in this case ; but it is universally admitted that 

 though a mangey dromedary in a show or transport Hues is not 

 handsome, a well kept camel in his native place is not ugly but 

 quite the reverse ! In the loneliness of the desert travellers 

 recognise the camel and his movements not only as suitable 

 but sometimes as graceful, and even grand. We have this opinion 

 in many well-known w-orks of travel. It is well Avorth the while 

 of any of my hearers who has not looked into the eye of a camel, 



