MAMMALIA 267 



death by killing their camels and drinking the water still stored in the 

 water-cells of the stomach. Each water cell is a small pocket with 

 the opening closed by a sphincter muscle to hold in the water. " One 

 celebrated traveler mentions the case of a camel that Had been dead 

 for ten days, and yet had no less than three pints of not unpleasant 

 water still remaining in its stomach." 



After the flesh of the hump has been reduced by a prolonged fast 

 it may take three or four months to be replaced. 



Camels have been domesticated for long ages and are known, 

 at present, only in the domestic state. Various races are bred and, 

 like horses, are adapted for different uses, chiefly as bearers of heavy 

 loads and for rapid travel as saddle animals ; a pack animal may carry 

 600 pounds or more at a speed of two to three miles an hour; a saddle 

 animal is said to be able to cover a distance of 100 miles in a day. The 

 use of the "ship of the desert" in caravans is too well known to need 

 further discussion. They are also of value to their possessors for their 

 hair, which is woven into cloth, for their milk that is largely used as a 

 food and to some extent for their flesh, which is occasionally eaten. 

 The value of camels is about that of horses. At the time of the gold 

 rush to California, in 1850, some camels were tried, unsuccessfully, on 

 our western deserts; they were later allowed to run wild. 



Belonging to the same family (Camelidae) with the camels are the 

 Llama and Alpaca, which have been domesticated for centuries by the 

 Peruvians. They are both smaller than the camel. The former is 

 used as a beast of burden, the latter is now extensively bred in South 

 Africa for its wool, which is so long, sometimes, that it reaches the 

 ground. 



American Bison, Bison bison (Fig. 174). This magnificent animal 

 (commonly called the buffalo), as mentioned above, once roamed the 

 plains of the western United States in countless numbers. It had been 

 used by the Indians from time immemorial, apparently without ap- 

 preciable diminution in numbers, but with the advent of the so-called 

 "civilized" white man, armed with firearms, its numbers rapidly di- 

 minished until now, except for a few hundreds of captive individuals, 

 cared for in private ranges and elsewhere, this king of American animals, 

 shown on our new five-cent pieces, is practically extinct. "Buffalo" 

 robes that were cheap, a generation or two ago are now no longer on 

 the market. It was said that many of the settlers killed the bison and 



