CAME L. 



677 



one part of tiu'ir organisation \\hieh keeps them to 

 that peculiar kind of surface on which food most 

 nearly resembling that of their native places is to be 

 fouii'i; and, as the camel is a native of very peculiar 

 kinds of surface, the ca!>""5 is a very remarkable 

 instance of this. These uiifmals use their feet only 

 as organs of motion, and except in kicking or striking 

 in their own defence, they use them for no other 

 purpose ; and, therefore, the structures of their feet 

 keep them more to their proper localities than those 

 of any other animals, as fur instance, the bufl'alo to 

 che swamp, the ox to the meadow, the sheep to the 

 bill side, the goat to the rocks, and the camel to the 

 lesert. Therefore, though it is possible to rear any 

 one of those animals over a very wide extent of lati- 

 tude, there is still some one better iitted for every 

 particular place then any of the others are ; and thus, 

 though nature has been exceedingly bountiful to man 

 in the valuable qualities in those animals, the advan- 

 tage is not given to him as an ignorant and indolent 

 savage, but as a means of rational study and whole- 

 some labour. Hence, every department of nature, 

 as well as every difficulty and distress by which man 

 is overtaken on his progress through life, impresses 

 upon him the necessity of being intelligent and indus- 

 trious proclaims to him, in language not to be mis- 

 taken, that if he would avoid being wretched and 

 miserable he must learn to know and to do, and continue 

 steady in the practice of both, during the whole period 

 of his life. 



The BACTRIAN CAMEL (Camclus Bactriantui) can 

 be very easily distinguished from the Arabian one, 

 by comparing the annexed figure with that on the 



plate " CAMELS." It will be seen that it has two 

 humps, one over the shoulders and the other over the 

 lumbar part of the spine. This, though lower on the 

 legs, is altogether taller by about half a foot than the 

 Arabian. It is also longer and stronger in the body, 

 thicker in the legs, but not having the soles of the 

 feet quite so large in proportion, or so convex on 

 their surfaces. Thus it is better adapted for walking 

 on hard surfaces than its southern neighbour. Still, 

 however, it walks very badly upon rocks ; and thus it 

 is not a mountain animal any more than the other. 

 The difference in the feet of the two species is, next 



to the difference in the coats already mentioned, one 

 of the most characteristic distinction's between th'3 

 two, and the difference in the length of the legs may 

 be considered as a part of this character. The broad 

 and rounded foot, the long leg, and the high lifting of 

 the Arabian camel, together with the proportionally 

 smaller weight of its body, adapt it in a peculiar 

 manner for travelling upon loose sand ; while the 

 smaller and flatter foot, and the shorter and stouter 

 leg, with the lower lifting in the Bactrian camel, adapt 

 it better for walking on the surface of the ground, 

 when dry and indurated, but not reduced to sand. 

 The foot stands firmer, and the animal has less con- 

 cussion when it walks, and thus, independently of its 

 greater size and strength, this animal could carry a 

 greater load than the other. 



Now those two characters are in exact conformity 

 with those of the deserts on different sides of that 

 line, which has been described as separating the 

 localities of the two species. From the absence of rain, 

 and the continual heat of the day, in the southern 

 deserts, the surface of the earth, even to the rock 

 itself, is reduced to powder; but it is not washed, 

 neither are those particles which would make a pa^te 

 with water, either accumulated in such quantity as to 

 form a paste, or supplied with so nine!) vvsiter as 

 would form them into one. The sand therefore re- 

 mains loose on those deserts at all seasons of the 

 year, and even where so much rain falls that their 

 peculiar vegetation is produced ; and that, vegetation 

 may be said to be wholly on the surface, very slow 

 growing, and furnished with an epidermis so close 

 and so little liable to be affected by changes of tem- 

 perature, that the plants remain juicy, and even cool, 

 in the burning heat of the desert. Those plants are 

 generally saline, bitter, or have some principle in 

 them too active for their being used as human food ; 

 but the few which can be so used are of a very 

 refreshing character. Wer may mention, as an in- 

 stance, the water-melon, which, in some places of the 

 desert, where the surface is nothing but stones and 

 sand, and where there is hardly another green thing 

 to be seen, is sometimes met with as much as thre-e 

 feet in length, and the same in circumference; ;>nd 

 though the sun is beating on it with the utmost inten- 

 sity, it feels colder in the mouth than a prepared ice 

 in the hottest of our summer days, so cold indeed, 

 that those who are heated by travelling or otherwise, 

 find caution necessary in indulging in this delicious 

 treat which nature provides for man iu the wilderness. 



The northern desert, that of the Bactrian camel, 

 is of a very different character. In the winter 

 there is both rain and snow, and the rivers are not 

 (infrequently so completely frozen over, that the 

 people, and even the loaded camels, cross on the ice 

 without danger. But the summer is very warm, and 

 in many places vegetation wholly disappears from 

 the surface. Still, the rains wash down the more 

 soluble matter from the heights, and form it into a 

 paste or mound on the levels ; and there it is, in the 

 summer, either a very fertile field, or a hardened sur- 

 face, like our beaten paths in dry weather, according 

 to circumstances. 



A country so circumstanced is adapted to a very 

 different vegetation from that which is found in the 

 deserts southward. The portions of the plants above 

 ground cannot endure the great difference which 

 there is between the summer and the winter; and 

 therefore it is in great part annual ; or the plants 



