GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE CAMEL. 173 



cold, and is strong enough to carry from three 

 to five riders. They are sewed up in felt cloths, 

 and large felts are stretched between the huts of 

 their masters, under which they gather for shel- 

 ter. Pallas observed the same custom among 

 the Calmucks, but Bergmann, who lived some 

 time among that people, says the felts are not 

 required for their protection against the cold, 

 but that they are merely a sort of housing for 

 the pack-saddle, which is used the whole year 

 through. They are less injuriously affected by 

 the severest winters, he observes, than the horse, 

 the ox, or the sheep, and they bear hunger and 

 thirst almost as well as the Arabian. Erman 1 

 says, under date of February 20, and with a 

 temperature of 25 of Fahrenheit below zero, 

 " On the Chinese side, (at Kiachta,) we saw 

 seventy fine camels turned loose and feeding 

 on the frozen and withered grass. They fear the 

 severe winters of this climate as little as the 

 parching heat in the sand-steppes. The alter- 

 nation of thaw and frost alone is dangerous to 

 them. The sharp and brittle icy crust, which 

 forms under such circumstances upon the sur- 

 face of the snow, wounds their legs and feet, as 

 is elsewhere observed to be the case with the 

 stag and the roe." 



1 Reisen, n. 154. 

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