xxvn CONCLUSION 451 



food, in addition to their loads ; the hygeen does this in one day ! 

 Wonders may be accomplished in desert travelling with camels if 

 properly managed j but we usually challenge misfortune by com- 

 mitting the charge of these animals to those who are perfectly 

 ignorant of their habits or character. 



Sometimes the male camel is exceedingly vicious, especially at 

 the rutting season, which is announced by the excretion of an oily 

 fluid like coal-tar from the back of the neck. When angry at this 

 period, it blows a large bladder from the mouth, which remains 

 distended for more than a minute before it disappears. I have 

 seen a male camel attack the people in every direction (fortunately 

 hobbled) ; and although they beat it with thick bamboos, it was 

 in noways cowed. 



The bite of a camel is very severe, and fatal accidents have 

 occasionally resulted from the periods of excitement in the male. 

 The teeth of the camel are peculiar. Cuvier thus describes 

 them : " They have not only always canines in both jaws, but 

 have also two pointed teeth implanted in the intermaxillary bones, 

 six inferior incisors, and from eighteen to twenty molars only ; 

 peculiarities which, of all the Ruminantia, they alone possess, 

 besides which the scaphoid and cuboid bones of the tarsus are 

 separated. 



" Instead of the great hoof, flat at its inner side, which 

 envelops the whole of the inferior portion of each toe, and which 

 determines the figure of the ordinary cloven foot, they have but 

 one small one, which only adheres to the last phalanx, and is 

 symmetrically formed like the hoofs of the Pachydermata. . . . 

 Their extreme sobriety, and the faculty they possess of passing 

 several days without drinking, cause them to be of the highest 

 utility. 



" It is probable that this last faculty results from the vast 

 masses of cells which cover the sides of their paunch, in which 

 water is constantly retained or produced. The other ruminants 

 have nothing of the kind." 



I cannot agree with Cuvier in accepting the word "produced." 

 As I have already described, the Arabs invariably let the camels 

 drink immediately before starting on their journey. The animals 

 drink thier fill, and take a considerable time, resting between their 

 long draughts. They seem to be aware, when loaded, that they 

 have a long journey before them, therefore from a natural instinct 

 they prepare for the thirsty desert, and fill their cells ; but those 

 cells do not " produce " water. 



The fact of a camel being a ruminating animal is immensely in 



