314 FAMILY CAMELID^E ; CAMEL, DROMEDARY. 



with water until the fourth or even the fifth day ; and in spring, 

 when the young herbage is succulent, the journey across the great 

 Syrian desert, from Damascus to Bngdad, occupying twenty-five 

 days, may be performed without any water being required by 

 the Camels, In the heavy caravans which traverse the desert for 

 mercantile purposes, each Camel is loaded with from 500 to 

 800 Ibs., and the rate of travelling does not exceed 2i or 2f 

 miles an hour, kept up for eight hours a day; but a lighter 

 caravan will travel somewhat more quickly, and will continue 

 the march for nine or ten hours daily. 



281. The Dromedary is a lighter variety of the Arabian 

 Camel, bearing much the same relation to the ordinary Camel, as 

 a Race-Horse or Hunter does to a Cart-Horse. It is used princi- 

 pally for journeys in which dispatch is required, and carries only 

 a single rider, or a very light burthen. But the quickness of its 

 journeys depends not so much upon the rapidity of its rate of 

 movement, as upon its power of uninterruptedly continuing a 

 moderate pace for a long time together. Urged to a gallop, it 

 cannot maintain its pace for half-an-hour, and is easily distanced 

 by the Horse ; but it can maintain a trot, at the rate of from 6 to 8 

 miles an hour, for 24 hours consecutively : and a gentle and easy 

 amble of from 5 to 5J miles an hour, which is the favourite pace 

 of the Dromedary, can be kept up by it for several days and 

 nights almost uninterruptedly. It appears that there is a swift 

 breed of the Bactrian, or two-humped Camel also ; which is in 

 request in China. All these animals are remarkable for their 

 docility, and for the patient endurance which they manifest. 

 Even when overloaded and fatigued, or when the load is inhu- 

 manely laid on sores or wounds, the animal neither refuses to rise, 

 nor attempts to cast off its burden ; but merely complains of the 

 injustice by crying out ; and his suffering must be extreme for 

 him to complain at all. Besides its uses as a beast of burden, the 

 Camel affords sustenance, by its flesh and milk, to the people 

 who possess it ; and also hair for the manufacture of cloth. 



282. The Llamas of South America bear a strong general 

 resemblance to the Camels in form and structure ; but they are 

 of much inferior size. They further differ in the absence of the 



