128 THE CAMEL. 



inspired by the energy of a Bonaparte, I find it 

 quite impossible to give them full credence. 



The Bactrian certainly does not possess the 

 speed of the Arabian deloul or the African ma- 

 hari, but he is used extensively, and with great 

 advantage, in high northern latitudes, as a beast 

 of the saddle. He is ridden through all the vast 

 territory where he occurs, except in Cabul and 

 the Crimea, and, as we have seen above, is capa- 

 ble of travelling from fifty to sixty-five miles in 

 a day, a rate of performance quite equal to that 

 of the common dromedary. In the winter espec- 

 ially, as Bergmann says, they are preferable to 

 horses, because they are more sure-footed, and 

 the length of their legs enables them to travel 

 with ease in a depth of snow where a horse could 

 scarcely move at all. Their gait under the saddle 

 appears to resemble that of the Arabian, the 

 light amble, according to Bergmann, being easy, 

 while the swifter pace violently tosses the rider. 



The regular gaits of the camel are all properly 

 paces or ambles, that is, he does not move his 

 legs, like most other quadrupeds, per diametrum, 

 but lifts the fore and hinder feet of the same 

 side at nearly the same time. When hotly pur- 

 sued by cavalry, he breaks into an awkward gal- 

 lop, but this movement, which is a rapid one, 

 can be kept up but a short time. Carbuccia 

 says, p. 21, " a horse upon the gallop is quickly 



