XLV 



ONE of the great events of the year in Algerian mat- 

 ters equine are the races at Biskra, on the edge of the des- 

 ert, or in what one might more properly call the first 

 oasis. In Tunis \hefantaslya is the fad. One can scarce- 

 ly compare the Biskra races to our own, but they bring 

 out some rather fine specimens of horse-flesh, and have 

 some curious features. Among these are camel -races, 

 at which some of the best running camels compete, not 

 at long distance, which is their great power, but at short 

 distances for speed a thing they are not remarkable for, 

 according to the creed of these modern days. 



The running camel is to the porter camel as the thor- 

 ough-bred to the mongrel cart-horse the one has speed in 

 a certain sense and vast endurance at speed ; the latter 

 has no speed, but simply great endurance under weight 

 or at traction. I saw a couple of laboring camels, worth 

 about a hundred and twenty-five dollars apiece, each do- 

 ing quite the work of a pair of horses, which were run- 

 ning an olive - crushing mill belonging to my friend, the 

 caliph, on three-hour shifts, day and night, and had been 

 doing it for a number of months. Such a camel will car- 

 ry five hundred pounds a great many consecutive hours. 

 They eat little and drink less actually considerably less 

 than a horse ; and their excretions are correspondingly 

 small. 



The Biskra races are got up mainly by the Europeans, 

 but the great delight of the Arab horseman is infanta- 



