(B.) 



CAMELS, AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR HORSES. MULES. ETC. 



During our journc}' across the continent, I took particular note of the country 

 with reference to its adaptation to the use of camels and dromedaries, and to ascer- 

 tain whether these animals might be introduced with advantage on our extensive 

 plains. 



Having, by a residence of many years in Asia and Africa, become well acquaint- 

 ed with their qualities and powers of endurance, I am now convinced that they 

 would be of inestimable value in traversing the dry and barren regions between the 

 Colorado and the Sierra Nevada ; and I am glad to see that the Secretary of War 

 has, in his late report to Congress, asked for an appropriation for the purpose of 

 importing a certain number, in order to test their usefulness. 



I will now state a few facts, which will show the valuable qualities that these 

 animals possess, the manner in which they may be rendered serviceable, and the 

 facility with which they might be domesticated on our continent. 



In enumerating the qualities which render the camel and dromedary so well 

 suited to OUT western waters, I will quote from several travellers, whose Ktatemeuts 

 will corroborate my own ; 



1. THEIR POWER TO ENDURE HUNGER AND THIRST. 



Taveniier, the great Eastern traveller, states that his camels, in going from Alep- 

 po to Ispahan, by the Great Desert, went nine days without drinking. 



The French missionary. Hue, who travelled in Tartary, Thibet, &c., in the years 

 1844, '45, '46, gives some interesting information in relation to this animal. 



Speaking of the Desert of Ortos, on the northern border of China, he says : 

 " Everywhere the waters are brackish, the soil arid, and covered with saline efflo- 

 rescences. This sterility is very injurious to cattle ; the camel, however, whose 

 robust and hardy nature adapts itself to the most barren regions, is a substitute with 

 the Tartars for all other animals. The camel, which they with truth style ' the 

 treasure of the desert,' can abstain from food and drink for fifteen days, and some- 

 times for a mouth. However poor the country, he always finds sufficient food to 

 satisfy his hunger. In the most sterile plains, the herbs which other animals will 

 not touch, and even bushes and dry wood, will serve him for food." In Barbary, 

 they can remain five days without drinking during the summer when the heat is 

 intolerable, and there is little or no herbage ; but when there is grass, and particu- 

 larly in spring, they require no water for threa \veeks 



