14 



far of our draught auimals and that even while pickiug up nour- 

 ishment by the way he can go as fast as most of our pack ani- 

 mals.^' This, of course, refers to progress over saud or loose 

 ground where the elastic cushion-like feet of the camel stand him 

 in good stead. Ordinarily on the march in India when the semi- 

 dry sandy bed of a river has to be traversed the camels come into 

 Camp first (elephants always excepted) and the bullock carts 

 last ; but where there is no impediment of this kind the mules 

 arrive in camp first and the camels last. 



(8) The most serious drawback to use of the camel in Army 

 Trajisport is his ivant of versatility — in that he is essentially a 

 pack animal, suited for certain climatic and geographical ranges 

 only, and working at a disadvantage except on certain kinds of 

 roads, (o) We have shown that the Camel can carry an enor- 

 mous pack-load for a considerable distance ; he can carry small 

 guns, such as the gatlings suggested by Col. Maxwell and those 

 used in the Aden Battery. Lieut. Elliott of the 3rd Bengal Ca- 

 valry, in a paper piiblished in the Journal of United Service Ins- 

 titution of India, mentions some occasions on which Camels were 

 utilized in war emergencies for purposes other than Transport. "In 

 1842-3, Sir Chas. Napier mounted a Company of 13th Light Infan- 

 try on Camels, each soldier being seated behind a native Camel 

 driver. In the mutiny of 1857 and for some time subsequently 

 two Camel Corps were organized, one Company from the Rifle 

 Brigade and another from the 92nd Highlanders. At the battle 

 of Calpi, in May 1858, the Rifle Brigade was brought up opportu- 

 nely on Camels to relieve the hard pressed line." The Punjab 

 Frontier Force, Guides, and Hyderabad Contingent, as well as 

 many of the Native Armies, have Camel Sowars attached in the 

 present day, mainly for use as swift orderlies. The camel is used 

 extensively in Arabia similarly, indeed the running camel of the 

 desert is very different from the slow beast of burden, and has 

 sometimes, in the conveyance of despatches, done good service 

 in covering a wonderful distance of desert in a very short space 

 of time. In some parts of India camels are used in carts for 

 draught work but for this their habits, slow pace, and figure 

 render them thoroughly unsuited. Kostenko, however, tells us 

 " The Kirghiz often harness this animal to their carts, the shafts 

 of which are attached to cords fastened to the foremost humps. 



