CAME L. 



G73 



with fatigue in crossing the deserts. Captain Bour- 

 cliier, K.N., who was shipwrecked in the lied bca in 

 the end of 1833, and reached Suukin as a. landing- 

 place, and thence across the south of the desert to 

 Berber, and thence down the Nile, and across the 

 northern desert from Abu llamet to Kroosko, 

 travelled on camels the whole distance ; and, in the 

 northern deserts especially, where the days were 

 liot and the nights cold, some of the camels employed 

 by his party were left to perish ; and he observed the 

 skeletons of many more which had previously been 

 left to feed the vultures in the wilderness. The 

 Captain had opportunities of directly ascertaining 

 whether there was any water in the second stomach 

 of those camels, but he did not find any, or even the 

 smallest indication that there had been any. On the 

 contrary, the camel-drivers ridiculed the idea as one 

 which could not be entertained by any one in the 

 least, acquainted with camels. When those animals 

 are so much exhausted as to be unable to proceed 

 farther, either with their burdens or without them, 

 they are sometimes not even killed, but left to linger 

 in the desert ; and in order to hasten their death, 

 their fore-legs are tied close together, to prevent 

 them from crawling about and procuring a scanty 

 supply of the hard and acrid plants, to protract the 

 period of their suffering; tor, as to hope recovery for 

 any exhausted creature that may be left in those 

 dismal places, there is none. But Captain Bourchier 

 describes the cries of those abandoned camels, when 

 the caravans leave them, as being among the most 

 heart-piercing that are uttered by any animal; and 

 this, coupled with the feeling, that without the camel 

 man could not make his way across those deserts, 

 but, if he once got into them, must remain there and 

 perish, makes the death of a camel in those places 

 one of the melancholy sights that can well be 

 imagined a sight that could be ill requited by the 

 small quantity of fluid which is contained in the 

 abdomen of the animal. 



In remarking on this error, we have anticipated 

 some of the observations which properly belong to 

 the true camels, as distinguished from the other 

 members of the group, but what has been here an- 

 ticipated will save so much description afterwards ; 

 and we now proceed to the more particular informa- 

 tion. 



CAMELS (C'auic/its). There are two species of 

 this genus, both, as has been said inhabitants of the 

 Eastern continent, but neither of them at present 

 exists, except in a state of domestication. But 

 there have been reports of wild ones in different 

 parts, both in southern Asia and central Africa, but 

 it does not appear that any of these accounts rest on 

 a sure or even a satisfactory foundation. The only 

 places where camels could be looked for as free 

 animals, living and breeding in wild nature, are the 

 margins of those deserts, in crossing which they are 

 employed as beasts of burden ; and the only ruminant 

 animals which are found there in a wild state are 

 different species of antelopes. There has been much 

 change in those countries however; and though the 

 Arab, in the same identical race, has probably pitched 

 his tent in them from the earliest period of human 

 history, yet other nations have risen and fallen in 

 succession, sometimes invading the Arab in the wil- 

 derness, and sometimes bein<>- invaded by them in 

 return. Thus we may naturally suppose that, as has 

 ueen the case with some of the domesticated oxen 

 .\AT. HIST, VOL. I. 



see the article Bos), stray camels may sometimes 

 lave been lett running wild, and may have bred in 

 the wild state for a few generations. It does not 

 .iow over appear, that they have been capable of con- 

 tinuing their race, even in this way, for any length 

 of time, and it is certain that they have never multi- 

 plied in this manner to any extent. Thus we must 

 regard them in a zoological point of view as domes- 

 ticated animals only, and as such we shall accordingly 

 describe them. 



Bui, as already noticed, the great distinguishing 

 character is the teeth ; and it will save verbal descrip- 

 tion of their appearance, to refer to Landseer's very 

 spirited and accurate representation of the Arabian 

 camel, or dromedary, in the plate " camels," and to a 

 wood-cut after the same artist in the sequel of this 

 article, for the Bactrian camel, the number of teeth, 

 under different sutts, have been already mentioned. 

 There are five grinders in boih sides of each jaw, 

 which have the same furrowed surface, arising from 

 alternate laminaj of bone and enamel, as the grinding 

 teeth of the other ruminating animal's. In advance 

 of these there are two false grinders in each j,;sv, 

 which stand apart from the rest, and are subconical, 

 and a little bent backwards. In front of these there 

 are two strong canines, and in the upper jaw two 

 front teeth which have also the form of, canines ; and 

 these scattered teeth lock into the intervals of those 

 of the lower jaw, and give the mouth, while the lips 

 are opened, a very ragged and formidable appear- 

 ance. Nor is the bite of the animal when enraged, 

 (and the male is very apt to be so during the rutting 

 season,) a very simple or very pleasant matter ; for 

 instances are mentioned in which an enraged camel 

 has wrenched off a man's arm at one bite. These 

 formidable teeth are not, however, intended by nature 

 for assailing any other animal, their grand purpose is 

 to wrench up the hard plants, and tear off the branches 

 of trees which grow in those w ild countries ; and the 

 length, and power of motion in the neck, give the 

 animal great force in this respect ; and, though the 

 fore teeth of the camel are not adapted for wounding, 

 or the first grinders for bruising, like those of IK 

 of prey, yet as they have to tear asunder very tough 

 substances, the hold which they take is very firm, 

 and the wrench which they give in order to separate 

 that which they take hold of, is very powerful. The 

 general form of their extremities will be seen in the 

 figures. Their hind legs are considerably longer than 

 their fore ones, though all four are long in comparison 

 with the body of the animal, and the neck is propor- 

 tionably long, in order that it may reach the ground, 

 as well as those branches that are above them. In- 

 deed, from the length and flexibility of the neck, the 

 mouth commands a very considerable circle, of which 

 the axis of the body is the centre. 



As is the case in all ruminating animals the meta- 

 tarsal and metacarpal portions of the extremities 

 consist of only a single bone each ; and the feet con- 

 sist of two toes, free only at a portion of the points, 

 and having a sole extending from the heel forward 

 for the greater part of the foot, and consisting of a 

 callous though not perfectly hard substance, inter- 

 mediate between the pads on the feet of beasts of 

 prey and horn. The extremities of the toes are 

 fortified by flat nails, which have a very slight resem- 

 blance to proper hoofs. The joints of the legs are 

 also armed with callosities, which prevent them from 

 being injured when the animal kneels on the bare 

 3D 



