124 THE CAMEL 



and to enable the little one to get strong too and run 

 about after its mother. But, as a matter of fact, this 

 is utterly inadequate, and she ought not to do any 

 work during the period of gestation and until the calf 

 is weaned, or at all events for a year after. To obtain 

 a good class of animal, with good powers of endurance, 

 speed, and stamina, it is absolutely essential, as pre- 

 viously remarked, to keep both stallions and females 

 from work of any kind, and exclusively for breeding 

 purposes. Needless to say that, with care, good feed- 

 ing, and special selection for their physical fitness and 

 superiority of breed, the results would be a hundred 

 per cent, better, and the mortality among the young 

 considerably diminished. 



A young one should not be weaned before it is one 

 and a half to two years old ; and a female that is 

 worked a few months after her confinement cannot do 

 this so that both the mother and calf suffer from such 

 treatment, and deteriorate in consequence. This is 

 only to be expected, and in itself would account for 

 the excessive mortality among the young. 



Second One fact seems pretty certain, and that is, that the 



newly-born camels do not get nearly so much milk as 

 they should, and that they are weaned much sooner 

 than they ought; and this in a very great measure 

 would account for want of stamina in an animal so 

 brought up, but is an evil that can easily be remedied, 

 as shown above. It has been already pointed out that 

 some tribes exist almost entirely on camels' milk, 

 while others use it largely for their own consumption ; 

 others, again, give it to their foals, the consequence 

 being that the young camels are stinted, and put out 



cause 



