PAUNCH OF THE CAMEL. 347 



their whole length. Thus in the digestive organs of the rumi- 

 nants everything is most beautifully arranged for the thorough 

 comminution and maceration of the food, and for the greatest 

 possible retardation of its passage through the body, as well as 

 for an immense extent of absorbing surface for the extraction of 

 every particle of the nutritious matter it contains. 



In the camel the organization of the paunch differs very ma- 

 terially from that of the ordinary ruminant, as its internal surface 

 is subdivided into numer- 

 ous small pouches, spe- 

 cially fitted for the recep- 

 tion and retention of water. 

 The apertures of these 

 cells, which have some- 

 times a depth and width 

 of three inches, are nar- 

 row, and closed by strong 

 muscular sphincters, so 

 as to form little cisterns 

 capable of guarding their Water . cell3 in the gtomacb of the Camel . ' 

 contents for a lengthened 



period. It is this apparatus which enables the camel to abstain 

 from drinking for seven or eight days together without injury, 

 and to render those invaluable services to the Eastern merchant 

 which have procured it the' well-earned and significant name of 

 the 'ship of the desert.' Had its stomach been differently 

 formed, it is highly probable that the caravan-trade of North 

 Africa and Syria, upon which the prosperity of a not inconsider- 

 able portion of the human race depends, could never have 

 existed. Thus the structure of the camel's stomach has not 

 only a reference to the animal's individual wants, but also to 

 those of man who uses its services ; and surely this harmony 

 between the various actors on the stage of desert-life must con- 

 vince every unprejudiced truth-seeker that it is founded upon 

 a grand and uniform plan, in which nothing has been left 

 to chance, but every detail poised and arranged by Divine 

 Wisdom ! 



The camel is not only provided with water for his long 

 desert-voyages, but also with liberal stores of fat, which are 

 chiefly accumulated in the hump, so that this prominence, which 



