26 THE CAMEL. 



regarded by the polished and the proud. Besides 

 this, both the products and the restraints of 

 proper agriculture are unfavorable to his full de- 

 velopment and physical perfection. When the 

 soil is subjugated and enclosed, and the coarse 

 herbage and shrubbery of spontaneous growth 

 are superseded by artificial vegetation, he misses 

 the pungent and aromatic juices which flavor 

 the sun-burnt grasses and wild arborescent plants 

 that form his accustomed and appropriate diet ; 

 the confinement of hedge, and yard, and stall, 

 are repugnant to his roving propensities and pre- 

 judicial to his health, and he is as much out of 

 place in civilized life as the Bedouin or the Tar- 

 tar. Hence the attempts to introduce him into 

 Spain, Italy, and other European countries have 

 either wholly failed, or met with very indifferent 

 success ; and though he still abounds in Bessa- 

 rabia, the Crimea, and all the southeastern prov- 

 inces of Russia, yet the rural improvements 

 which the German colonists have introduced into 

 those regions have tended to reduce his numbers. 

 When the wandering Tartar becomes stationary, 

 encloses his possessions, and converts the desert 

 steppe into arable ground, his camels retreat be- 

 fore the horse, the ox, and the sheep, and retire 

 to the wastes beyond the Don and the Volga. 1 So 



1 Schlatter, Bruclistucke aus Reisen im sudlichen Russ- 

 land, 178-9, observes, that the number of camels among the 



