LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



41 



extreme precision ; and the delusion of its being 

 a sheet of water was thus rendered perfect. He 

 had often seen the mirage in Syria and Egypt ; 

 there he always -found it of a whitish color, like 

 morning mist, seldom lying steadily on the plain, 

 almost continually vibrating ; but in the case above 

 described the appearance was very different, and 

 bore the most complete resemblance to water. 

 This exact similitude the traveller attributes to 

 the great dryness of the air and earth in the desert 

 where he beheld it. There, too, the appearance 

 of water approached much nearer than in Syria 

 and Egypt, being often not more than two hundred 

 paces from the beholders, whereas he had never 

 seen it before at a distance of less than half-a-mile. 

 Will it be believed that some zoologists (among 

 them we could mention a great name* the name 

 of one who did glorious service in his day, but who 

 was too prone to attempt to put Nature in the 

 wrong) have endeavored to account for the con- 

 struction of the camel by a theory based upon the 

 lengthened servitude of the animal ? Now, if you 

 grant, as you will not if you are wise, that the 

 callosities of the camel were the result of an infini- 

 tesimal series of genuflexions, the slave-tokens of 

 a long submission to the tyrant man, what will 

 you make of the internal organization of the cis- 

 terns which enable the animal to live where any 

 creature not so provided must perish from thirst 

 without artificial aid ? Here are vast sandy deserts 

 to be traversed before man can communicate with 

 man. Where is the medium of communication ? 

 Nature presents an animal of surpassing endurance, 

 capable, upon emergency, of sustaining a thirst of 

 ten or twelve days' duration. The head is levelled 

 directly forward, and lighted by eyes that can look 



*Buffon. 



onward, and in some degree backward, but which 

 are protected from the downward stroke of the sun 

 by an overhanging orbit which prevents the camel 

 from looking upward. The nostrils are so formed 

 that the animal has only to make the muscles do 

 their duty to shut them against the sand-storm of 

 the simoon. From the sole of the elastic foot to 

 the crown of the well-balanced head the camel ex- 

 ternally is formed for the destiny which it has to 

 fulfil ; and its internal structure is pregnant with 

 proofs of its adaptation to its own wants as well as 

 the wants of man on that particular portion of the 

 earth where it is most vigorous ; if it be taken 

 thence and transplanted to other localities, it does 

 its duty after a fashion, but the breed dwindles. 



The geologist well knows that the disposition 

 of the strata, after all the convulsions and disrup- 

 tions they have undergone, is precisely that which 

 presents the most accommodating surface to man. 

 If they had remained as they were at first deposited, 

 where would he have found that mineral wealth 

 which is the great source of civilization ? It is 

 quite true that this very mineral wealth is enabling 

 him to supersede the animal of which we have 

 been treating, perhaps at too great length. The 

 steam-power Darwin was a great and true 

 prophet* may leave the camel far behind, even in 

 the desert ; but no sound physiologist can contem- 

 plate the creature without seeing in it an over- 

 whelming manifestation of the wisdom of the 

 Creator. 



* Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar, 

 Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car. 



This is fulfilled. Who shall say that the rest of the 

 prophecy may not come to passl 



Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear 

 The flying chariot through the fields of air. 



