STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND ANATOMICAL NOTES 25 



for several days. One thing is certain they are most 

 careful in looking after it before starting on and dur- 

 ing a long journey. This may or may not be, and 

 sounds very plausible. The camel, it is acknowledged, 

 when in first-rate condition has a full, round hump, 

 and, vice versa, when in poor condition the roundness 

 and fulness disappear. In fact, as the animal fails 

 the hump gradually but visibly wastes away and 

 shrinks into nothingness. I have watched hundreds 

 upon hundreds of camels closely when they have been 

 underfed and overworked, with their humps failing 

 perceptibly every~day before my eyes ; and the conclu- 

 sion I have come to, which strikes me as far more 

 reasonable, is that the hump is the true indicator or 

 the barometer by which you can tell at a glance the 

 health and condition of a camel. Some of the desert 

 breeds I have seen in the Soudan have scarcely any 

 hump at all, or at least it is so slight as to be almost 

 imperceptible, and [yet this is when they are in the best 

 of condition. This to a certain extent would seem to 

 support my argument, for the reserve upon which they 

 have to rely is almost nil, and they are hardier than 

 the large-humped animals, though of course it is 

 naturally much harder to detect loss of condition by 

 the hump in them than in the latter kind. 



I have always considered a failing hump a distinctly The hump 

 bad sign, because on service, or when a camel is doing serve 

 extra hard work, even allowing that it is a supply 

 which nourishes the animal when all else fails, it is, 

 after all, only a temporary reserve which soon becomes 

 exhausted, and which itself requires constant replen- 

 ishing to keep it always full and well nourished a 



