various campaigns as regards keeping camels in health and 

 eflSciency. Individual officers have solved the problem of how to 

 keep camels at work and to prove them valuable on a campaign; 

 but our troops hare most certainly not been successful ; how- 

 ever;, sureljj if overladen animals have not their saddles removed 

 for a fortnight, we cannot wonder to find horrible sores on their 

 backs ; if animals remain ungroomed and tied up in lines or on 

 the march for months together, we cannot wonder if they get 

 mange in an aggravated form ; and if animals get no food nor 

 water for a week, we cannot wonder that they at last fall and 

 die under their heavy burdens. To sum the matter up in a few 

 words. If men have in war emergency suddenly to deal with 

 an animal about which they know nothing whatsoever, the 

 animal must not be blamed that the results are not altogether 

 satisfactory. 



The knowledge of the camel possessed by the untravelled 

 Briton is easily summed up. Firstly, he is certain that the 

 animal is the ''ship of the desert.'^ Secondly, that it has some- 

 thing to do with the eye of a needle. Thirdly (and most posi- 

 tively) it is a sort of travelling reservoir, consisting of inexhaus- 

 tible water tanks and never needs to drink. Fourthly, it has a 

 hump and long legs and neck. Finally, it is an uncanny brute 

 of strange habits, suited only to the wandering Bedouin of the 

 desert and the inimitable Barnum. When called on in the 

 emergencies of service to take charge of camels, the principle 

 an Englishman works on is to treat them as much as possible 

 like the beast of burden with which he is most familiar, the 

 horse. Where this has been carried out thoroughly the results 

 have been not unsatisfactory, for when groomed regularly the 

 camel does not get mange, when properly saddled and loaded 

 he does not get sore back, and when properly fed and watered 

 he remains serviceable and does good work. It is when one 

 soldier is given several camels to take care of, and is aided only 

 by a lot of lazy, cowardly coolies, who know as little about a 

 camel as he does and have no intention of trying to do anything 

 whatsoever for their pay, that the poor camels fail. 



The water*tank theory is an unfortunate one. Certainly a 



