STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND ANATOMICAL NOTES 21 



for the intense stiffness which your joints and back 

 especially suffer until you have ridden one constantly. 

 He is well adapted for carrying loads, but in proportion 

 to his size is not up to great weight. He is also an 

 excellent riding animal, and in his native deserts cannot 

 be surpassed for speed and endurance. His nostrils 

 are so compressed that he alone of all animals can 

 withstand the stifling blast of the 'khamseen' or 

 ' simoom,' which blows across the desert at times to 

 the inconvenience, and sometimes danger, of the un- 

 fortunate passer-by. His hind quarters are deficient 

 in power, and there is a marked disparity between 

 them and the fore quarters, which you can see at a 

 glance have far greater muscular and sinewy develop- 

 ment ; consequently, as well as on account of (1) length 

 of legs, (2) general clumsiness, he is a bad climber, 

 though mountain camels, or, properly speaking, camels 

 found in mountainous countries, have shorter legs than 

 those belonging to flat districts. Camels when having 

 sexual connection, for this reason, are obliged to 

 assume a semi-recumbent position. Both these questions 

 will be fully discussed later on. 



And now I intend to examine in detail some of the 

 more prominent features, which will at least give us an 

 insight into the system and inner structure of the camel. 

 Kindly recollect, however, that this is not from the pen 

 of a scientific anatomist and naturalist, but of one 

 who has always taken a deep interest in the creature, 

 and who has never been above learning a lesson from 

 anybody or any source, particularly from the camel 

 himself. 



The nostrils are constructed in the form of slits, Nostrils 



