216 APPENDIX. 



easy task to introduce, hereafter, breeds possessing any 

 special qualities, which the more ordinary animal may 

 be found to want. 



It need hardly be added, that the opinions of Major 

 Wayne and Lieut. Porter are entirely favorable to the 

 success of the attempt to introduce and naturalize the 

 camel, and that hitherto no unexpected obstacle or 

 difficulty of any sort has presented itself. 



The reader cannot but be struck with surprise at the 

 extremely small quantity of nutriment consumed by the 

 animals while on board the vessel. The opinion I had 

 formed on this subject from personal observation, and 

 expressed in Chapter IX. has been very fully con- 

 firmed. Doubtless in colder weather, and especially 

 when exposed to severe labor, the camel will require a 

 more liberal supply of food, but even under the most 

 unfavorable circumstances, there is no probability that 

 the cost of his keeping will approach that of the horse. 

 Indeed, upon most routes where he will be employed, 

 he will require no nutriment but those plants with 

 which nature has sown the desert, as if for his especial 

 sustenance. I find no satisfactory evidence that he 

 feeds on any of the cacti, but though he may reject 

 these plants at first, it is not improbable that he may 

 learn to eat them, as thirst has taught the mule in 

 South America to feed upon the melon-cactus or rather 

 to drink its juices, in spite of the formidable spines 

 with which it is armed. 1 The foliage and especially 



1 Humboldt, Ansichten der Natur, i. Steppen und Wttsten. 

 Cattle are fed upon cacti in New Mexico, the spines being 

 burnt off. 



