The peace services of tiie camel are not less meritorious tlian 

 his war services. His function as ship of the desert is gradu- 

 ally being taken away from him by the spread of railways, 

 as in Rajputana, Scind, Central Asia^ and Egypt, and we have 

 historical evidence that his range has been limited to an extent 

 since the iime when the westward and eastward waves of the 

 Mussulman invasion extended from Spain in the West to Southern 

 India and China in the East. A few representatives remain in 

 Spain, very few in Mysore, and in Europe practically the only 

 camels are the stunted race of Pisa, which seems to have been 

 introduced somewhat recently from Tripoli. I believe there are 

 camels in Constantinople and European Turkey ; I observe that 

 General Gordon writes of them in Turkey. I noticed recently in 

 the Royal Dublin Society's Museum a sowari camel on a real and 

 antique Irish harp as its prominent decoration : how it came 

 there I cannot surmise ! 



I have somehow arrived at the impression that in Asiatic 

 Russia, and iu the Caspian region and Crimea especially, of 

 European Russia, the range of the two-humped camel is 

 becoming restricted by railway development. Expansion of 

 range is taking place in the Southern States of America, where 

 imported camels have done well and are multiplying rapidlj^, 

 and in Australia, whither they have been imported from India, 

 and where have been established breeding stations. It is con- 

 sidered that the camel will prove specially valuable in opening 

 up Central Australia. In Mongolia, Western China, the Central 

 Asian Desert, the Khanates, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Persia, 

 Asia Minor, Arabia, and the whole desert area of Northern and 

 Central Africa the camel reigns supreme as a means of transport 

 for goods and travellers. Tradition has it that the camel iu- 

 vn.ded Africa by way of the Isthmus of Suez ; he has invaded 

 America and Australia by sea. 



It is reasonably surmised that the camel is decreasing in 

 numbers ; one of the Caliphs, for example, is credited with 

 assembling 120,000 camels for a journey to Mecca. Here we 

 are face to face with one of those difficulties constantly appear- 

 luo- before naturalists. Some allowance must be made for oriental 



