THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



123 



least improvable of all our servitors. The fact is, this animal 

 belongs to an ancient and lowly type of mammals character- 

 ized by relatively small brains, and therefore of weak intelli- 

 gence ; but, for its singular serviceableness in drought-ridden 



Camels Feeding 



countries, it would probably have been hunted off the earth 

 by the early men, as have been many other remnants of the 

 ancient life. 



It is somewhat characteristic of the older forms of animals, 

 those which took shape in the earlier Tertiary periods, that 

 they are less variable than those which acquired their char- 

 acteristics in times nearer our own. It is a fact well known 

 to the students of paleontology, that species and genera 



