82S 



CAMEL CAMELOPARD. 



they generally browse as much in an hour as serves 

 them for ruminating all night, and fur their support 

 during the next day. But it is uncommon to find Mich 

 pasturage, and they are contented with the coarsest 

 tare: nettles, thistles, wormwood, and various harsh 

 vi-iMtaMes are eate.n by them with avidity, and are 

 even preferred to more delicate plants. 



('anieK, designed exclusively tor labour, are usual- 

 ly gelded, and females are also treated in a similar 

 manner. They are, it is true, not so strong, n r s.i 

 spirited, as nnnmtilated animals, but are much more 

 manageable. During their sexual season, the males 

 become furious und ungovernable : they refuse food, 

 are spiteful, biting, aim kicking even their keepers, 

 to whom they are, at other times, very obedient. At 

 Uiis time, also, a fcetid secretion is effused from a 

 glandular apparatus on the neck ; the animal foams 

 at the mouth, and a red, membranous vesicle, similar 

 to a bladder, is extended on each side of the mouth. 

 One mule is reserved perfect for every eight females. 

 The female receives the male in the same crouching 

 attitude, in which she places herself to receive a load, 

 or for the purpose of sleeping. She goes with young 

 twelve months, and brings forth one at a birth. Her 

 milk is very thick, abundant, and rich, but of rather 

 a strong taste. Mingled with water, it forms a very 

 nutritive article of diet. Breeding and milk-giving 

 camels are exempted from service, and fed as well as 

 possible, the value of their milk being greater than 

 that of their labour. The young camel usually sucks 

 for twelve months; but snch as are intended for 

 speed are allowed to suck, and exempted from re- 

 straint, for two or three years. The camel attains 

 the full exercise of its functions within four or five, 

 and the duration of its life is from forty to fifty years. 



The humps or bunches on the back of the camel 

 are mere accumulations of cellular sul)stance and fat, 

 covered by skin, and a longer hair than that of the 

 general surface. During long journeys, in which the 

 animals suffer severely from want of food, and be- 

 come greatly emaciated, these protuberances are 

 gradually absorbed, and no trace of them left, except 

 tliat the skin is loose and flabby where they were 

 situated. In preparing for a journey, it is necessary 

 to guard the humps from pressure or friction by ap- 

 propriate saddles, as the slightest ulceration of these 

 parts is followed by the worst consequences : insects 

 deposit their larves in the sores, and sometimes exten- 

 sive and destructive mortification ensues. 



The Bactrian or common camel is larger than the 

 dromedary ; the limbs are not so long in proportion 

 to the body ; the muzzle is larger and more tumid ; 

 the hair of a darker brown, and the usual gait slower. 

 A still more striking distinction is afforded by the two 

 humps the dromedary having but one. This single 

 hump of the latter occupies the middle of the back, 

 rising gradually on all sides towards its apex, and 

 never inclining to one side. Both species are occa- 

 sionally found in collections of animals. The drome- 

 dary is more frequently seen than the camel. 



During that season of the year when these gentle 

 creatures become violent, the Turks take advantage 

 of this change in their disposition to set on foot camel- 

 fijjlits disgraceful exhibitions, indicative of the same 

 spirit as the lion-fights of Rome, the bull-fights of 

 S| >ain, the bull and badger-baitings, and cock-fights 

 of England. These fights are common at Smyrna 

 and Aleppo. The camels of Smyrna are led out to a 

 large plain, filled with eager crowds. The animals 

 are muzzled, to prevent their doing each other serious 

 injury, for. their bite is tremendous, always oringing 

 the piece out. A couple being let loose, run at each 

 oilier with extreme fury. Their mode of combat is 

 curious , they knock their hads together laterally, 

 twist their long necks, wrestle with their fore-leas. 



almost like bipeds, and seem to be principally bent on 

 throwing down their adversary. 



CAMEL, in mechanics ; a machine used in Holland 

 nnd St Petersburg for lifting ships over shallow bars. 

 De Witt invented these machines, and Peter the 

 (ireat introduced them into Russia. A camel is 

 composed of two separate parts, the insides of which 

 are shaped so as to embrace the hull of a ship on both 

 sides. Each part has a cabin, with many pumps and 

 plu-s. They are fastened to the vessel underneath, 

 and entirely enclose its sides and bottom. They are 

 then towed to the bar, and are sunk with the vessel, 

 by taking out the plugs. The water being now 

 pumped out, the camel lifts the vessel, and the whole 

 is towed over the bar. 



CAMELEON. See Chameleon. 



CAMELOPARD ; also called giraffe (camelopardalis 

 giro/fa, L.) ; a very remarkable genus of mammifer- 

 ous quadrupeds, belonging to the order of the rumi- 

 nants ; characterized by having eight incisive teeth 

 in the lower jaw ; a bony prominence on the frontal 

 bone ; horns somewhat inclined, covered by the skin 

 of the head, and having a bristly fringe round their 

 tips ; callosities upon the sternum and knee joints ; a 

 tuft at the end of the tail ; a reddish mane extending 

 from the occiput along the whole of the neck and 

 shoulders, as far as the root of the tail. The body of 

 the giraffe having considerable resemblance to that of 

 the camel, and the colour of its skin being an impure 

 or yellowish white, spotted with rhomboidal patches 

 of lawn colour, something like that of the leopard, led 

 to its bearing the names of these animals conjoined. 

 In its manner of kneeling for the purpose of sleeping, 

 in the length of its neck, and the presence of callosi- 

 ties on the lower part of the breast and over tin- 

 joints, it has a further similarity to the camel. Its 

 horns, which, in the male, are about a foot long, per- 

 manent, and covered by the skin of the head to their 

 tips, give the giraffe some analogy to the genus cervi/s 

 or deer, under which it was classed by Linnaeus. Its 

 most striking peculiarity is the great apparent height 

 of its foreparts, which rise very suddenly from the 

 fore shoulders. Measured from the ground to the 

 top of the head, the animal is from fifteen to seven- 

 teen feet high. The posterior extremities are not 

 higher than nine feet ; but the difference in length 

 between the anterior and posterior extremities is by 

 no means as great as would be inferred from the ap- 

 pearance of the animal. The great difference is ow- 

 ing to the length of the neck, which tapers upwards, 

 and at its base is rendered exceedingly thick, by the 

 long dorsal and cervical spinous processes that give 

 attachment to its powerful muscles and ligaments. 

 The trunk of the body is short in proportion to the 

 neck, and the fore limbs are more robust than the 

 posterior. The hoofs are rounded and cleft, like 

 those of the ox. The tail is slender, cylindrical, and 

 terminated by a tuft three or four inches long. The 

 head of the giraffe is not unlike that of the horse ; 

 the eyes are large, fine, and brilliant; the ears, both 

 in length and figure, more resemble those of the ox. 

 It is a mild, timid, and harmless animal, choosing 

 dense forests for its residence, and feeding on the 

 leaves and shoots of trees. When it browses the 

 herbage on the ground, it is not, as has been supposed, 

 under the necessity of kneeling, though its natural 

 mode of feeding, for which it seems to be, especially 

 constructed, is ny browsing upon trees or shrubs of 

 considerable elevation. 



The giraffe is a native of the country lying between 

 Egypt and Ethiopia. It is rare in Abyssinia, and still 

 more so in Southern Africa. It is hunted and killed 

 by the natives for the sake of its large and beautiful 

 skin, as well as for the marrow of its bones, considered 

 by them to be an exquisite dainty. The flesh of the 



