wlieu the Veterinary Surgeon '^ does not see clearly the proper 

 way to treat the sick camel," in other words, does not know his 

 business ! With such a peculiar animal as the Elephant the quali- 

 fied practitioner may plead some want of special knowledge, but 

 liis science ought to render him competent to deal with a sick 

 camel with more prospects of success than an ignorant and super- 

 stitious native driver can possibly have ! It is not fair to urge 

 that the camel is unfit for use in Army Transport on active service 

 because he has succumbed to bad management in countries unsuit- 

 ed by geography and climate for him ; nor that we are unac- 

 quainted with his management although we have much informa- 

 tion accessible ; nor that we dislike and despise him. These 

 arguments are more than counterbalanced by the facts that in 

 some countries the camel is, under intelligent and sympathising 

 appreciative management, the most reliable animal for Transport 

 in War and Trade. 



We must now treat seriatim the qualities of the camel which 

 afect his value for Army Transport : — (1). He is patient and 

 enduring, remarkably tolerant of thirst and of exposure to 

 the heat of the sun. He is a very easy animal to feed under the 

 emergencies of a campaign for he will put up with all sorts of 

 food unsuited to other herbivora and " he alone can nourish him- 

 self with hard prickly plants like cactus leaves" (Vallon). (2). 

 He is docile under proper management but most intractable and 

 obstinate when handled unskilfully or imposed upon by a too 

 heavy load. We very frequently hear such expressions as "' a 

 camel is never in a good humour," which probably arise from 

 the remarkable expression of the animal and the pliability of 

 feature which the camel exhibits certainly to a greater degree 

 than any other herbivore. We are unprepared for this in a vege- 

 table feeder, we do not anticipate seeing sharp teeth in the front 

 of the upper jaw which are fully exposed by the opening of the 

 cleft in the upper lip. When we look at the sharp fangs, the 

 split lip, the long downward bent muzzle, and the narrow nostrils 

 of this animal our preconceived ideas of what a beast of burden 

 should be receive a shock, and we conceive a dislike to the camel 

 and call him unlovely ; we hate his gawky limbs and ungainly 

 gait. His skin pads look as though they were disease. As horse- 

 men we object to his long, narrow, ewe neck and the dispropor- 



