294 



CAMEL. 



to 



Camel, to feed a camel before the outret in proportion 



the fatigue to be supported, it is afterwards sus- 

 tained on an inconsiderable quantity of beans, or 

 a few small balls of barley meal daily, thrown on the 

 ground when it halts. Whole days, however, may 

 elapse, without the animal tasting water, or being 

 injured by the want of it. Travellers frequently 

 speak of having experienced this in long marches. 

 Ta vernier occupied 65 days in crossing the great de- 

 sert, and nine of these once intervened without find- 

 ing water. Leo Africanus maintained, that camels 

 could resist fifteen days complete privation of it 

 without prejudice, a fact which receives confirma- 

 tion from the recent observations of Dr Russel. 

 The camels of a caravan, from Bussorah to Aleppo, 

 he observes, subsisted the like space of time without 

 water; which was reckoned an extraordinary cir- 

 cumstance, and nothing of this kind was recollected 

 by the natives. But we must not suppose, that these 

 animals are insensible of thirst : for, after long pri- 

 vatioo, they drink with such avidity, that the quan- 

 tity swallowed often proves fatal : and it is related 

 of a caravan to Mecca, which had endured great ex- 

 tremities for want of water, that the camels set off 

 at full speed, when they became sensible of its pre- 

 sence, and rushing furiously into a pool, drank so 

 immoderately, that many died on .the spot. It is 

 said, that they can distinguish the presence of water 

 at the distance of two or three miles. Notwith- 

 standing the camel can resist such long privations, yet 

 these have their limits, and protracted abstinence can- 

 not fail to prove destructive. Of this a melancholy 

 example happened in the year 1805, when a caravan, 

 in its progress across a desert, was disappointed of 

 finding a spring at the usual place. On this occa- 

 sion no less than 1800 camels and^2000 persons pe- 

 rished of thirst. 



Physiologists, in accounting for the peculiar pro- 

 perty of the camel, in resisting the want of water, 

 have supposed, that it is provided with an additional 

 stomach of particular configuration, to retain what 

 is imbibed. M. Daubenton, in dissecting a camel 

 which was dead ten days, and had been carried fifty 

 miles, found a quantity of clean insipid water in the 

 deep cells of one of the stomachs : and it is well es- 

 tablished, that in situations of urgent necessity, tra- 

 vellers have killed their camels to obtain the water 

 contained in them. One of the Arabian historians, 

 in recording the sufferings of Mahomet's army in 

 an expedition against the Greeks, states that this al- 

 ternative was resorted to : and, more recently, a si- 

 milar fact is mentioned by Mr Bruce. Two of the 

 camels, that would not rise after an exhausting 

 inarch, were killed, and about four gallons of water 

 of a bluish tint, vapid, and void of taste or smell, 

 vjere taken from the stomach of each. Nevertheless, 

 it does not appear that there is a particular reservoir 

 for the purpose; and there is reason to think that the 

 same purpose is fulfilled by the singular structure of the 

 second stomach. Being composed of numerous cells, 

 several inches deep, the orifices of which are apparently 

 susceptible of muscular contraction, it is conjectured, 

 that when the animal drinks, it has the power of di- 

 recting the water into these cells, instead of allowing 



its passage into the first stomach. But it will be re- 

 ceived here when these are full ; and, in this man- 

 ner, a quantity of water may be kept separate from 

 the food. From the structure of the second sto- 

 mach, it neither receives food in the first instance, 

 nor does it afterwards pass into its cavity. The ori- 

 fice of the cells composing it are so constructed, as 

 to prevent the entrance of solid food into them.- 

 That the natural repugnance at drinking water from 

 the stomach of an animal may be conquered it is not 

 difficult to believe, when we are told, that, on occa- 

 sions of scarcity, above an hundred guineas have 

 been given for a single draught. 



The progress of the camel is in general slow, 

 especially when collected in numbers to compose a 

 caravan ; but its pace is regular and uniform, and 

 constitutes no inaccurate measurement of distance 

 over desolate regions, where there is no other guide. 

 Travellers have frequently remarked, that the cara- 

 van then advances only between two or three miles 

 an hour, and continues but seven or eight hours in 

 motion ; though, from extraordinary exertions, or 

 the peculiarity of circumstances, the latter period 

 may be considerably protracted in a day. But, from 

 careful calculation of the time employed in long aad 

 painful journies, two miles and a half an hour is the 

 result. This was found in crossing the great desert, 

 which extends 720 miles ; and also in the little de- 

 sert, which stretches above 4-50 miles between more 

 fertile countries. It does not appear that the load of 

 the camel materially affects its progress ; and that 

 the chief difference in that case lies in the daily dura- 

 tion of the march. One which carries but little in 

 addition to the weight of its rider, travels an hour 

 and a half or two hours longer every day in distant 

 journies. 



But among the different species or varieties of the 

 camel, aome are endowed with uncommon speed, and 

 emphatically called by the eastern nations camels of the 

 mind. This, the Arabs figuratively express, * when 

 thou shah meet a heirie, and say to the rider, "Sa- 

 lem Alick," ere he shall have answered thee, " Alick 

 Salem," he will be afar off, for his swiftness is like 

 the wind.' There are many gradations, however, in 

 the fleetness of these animals, which are trained for 

 the saddle only, and are invariably of the Arabian, or 

 one bunch kind. But a camel endowed with this 

 property is rarely found. The ancients relate, that 

 a journey, which usually occupied 30 or 40 days, was- 

 performed in eleven, with camels of the dromedary 

 species, when Alexander commanded Parmenio to be 

 put to death ; and Leo Africanus observes, that ma- 

 ny dromedaries will go an hundred miles daily, for 

 eight or ten successive days. 



These assertions are fully confirmed by modern ob- 

 servations, from which we learn that the name of this 

 fleet animal is mahari t el heirie, or erragual, to dis- 

 tinguish it from djimmel, by which name the ordina- 

 ry camel is known to the Arabs. Its properties are 

 of different degrees, according to the various breeds 

 or races, which as yet are not sufficiently illustrated j 

 but it is evidently of smaller size and lighter make 

 than any of the other species hitherto described. The 

 camel which can go three days journey in one is cat- 



C-ime'J. 



