MAMMALS. 



631 



hundreds of miles without water, and bearing immense loads. In fact, 

 climatic conditions limit the camel as well as other animals, and when 

 they enter equatorial Africa they quickly succumb to circumstances to 

 which they are not adapted. So, too, exaggeration has played its part in 

 their endurance. In the first division of their stomach the water extracted 

 from their food and drink is stored to tide over a period when none is to 



Fig. 499. — Two-humped, or Bactrian, camel (Camelus bactrianus). 



be obtained, but it is a good camel and a fast traveler that can go a 

 hundred miles without water ; and even then it can carry but a small 

 load. 



Before the late war the government imported a number of camels to 

 be used in the deserts and alkali plains of the West, but they were soon 

 neglected and allowed to run wild. They, however, found the circum- 

 stances favorable, and increased in numbers, and now are quite abundant 



