402 



CAMELS FEEDING. 



of conducting the march by the aid of stars, which long 

 practice enables them to steer by as effectively as the 

 helmsman on board a ship at. sea can do by compass. 

 In the hot weather also, the camels travel better by 

 night, especially if the desert supplies them with occasional 

 tufts of scanty herbage which they can crop as they 

 pass them by; this their long necks enable them to do 

 without stop or difficulty: they also eat with better 

 appetite than during the day when halted. * 



It is a well ascertained fact that these animals do not 

 like grazing during the great heat of the day, the morn- 

 ing at a very early hour is the time they prefer for 

 feeding, or else by night. It has been frequently 

 observed that when a halt is made for a short time 

 during the day, camels merely profit by it to rest 

 themselves, and not to feed unless their appetite is 

 excited by the sight of some fresh and succulent herbage, 

 or that they are refreshed by a little water, f 



That being so, it is the practice of the Arab guides, 

 and one generally followed by experienced travellers 

 like Count D'Escayrac de Lauture, to time their departure 

 for a long march across a waterless desert, as far as 

 possible, for about the seventh or eighth day of the 

 lunar month, so as to take full advantage for at least 

 a part of the night, of the clear moonlight which in 

 these regions bathes the surface of the waste with a 

 lustrous flood of silver light so clear and beautiful 

 that the traveller as he goes along can easily note all 



* See Le Desert et Le Soudan, par M. le Comte D'Escayrac de Lauture, 

 Paris, 1853, p. 619. 



] Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, Sahara et Soudan. Vol. i., p. 135? from 

 the French translation from the German by Jules Gourdault, Paris 1 88 1. 

 Le Desert et Le Soudan, par M. le Comte D'Escayrac de Lauture 

 p. 617. 



