138 THE CAMEL 



signs of languor and heaviness, and many of them soon 

 succumbed, none of them eventually escaping. This 

 was due, I feel sure, to the overdrinking, coming as it 

 did on the top of hard work and empty stomachs, and 

 on an already enervated frame, and succeeded as it was 

 by hard work minus food and water ; while those ol 

 the other division had gained decidedly by the rest and 

 treatment, and struggled on manfully to the end. This 

 and other instances that came under my notice have 

 convinced me that one of the results of making camels 

 abstain from either food or water is that they will in 

 either case gorge themselves to repletion ; therefore, if 

 you have been obliged from necessity to keep them on 

 starvation diet, never give them the opportunity of 

 doing so when you reach the land of plenty. 

 The best Watering alternate days is not a bad idea in its way, 



but in my opinion, after giving every conceivable plan 

 a trial, the safest way is to depend entirely on circum- 

 stances and conditions, and act accordingly. If water is 

 procurable, whether on the march or at the halt, or even 

 when remaining idle in cantonments, by all means water 

 your camels once daily, the afternoon for choice. This I 

 found was the best method, and when I had command 

 of a camel corps in the Soudan it succeeded admirably. 

 Whenever I went out on patrol, which was frequently, 

 my camels used to cover on an average fifty miles a 

 day in the desert without water, and with very little 

 food, except a daily ration of 3 Ib. of grain, and 

 what they could pick up from the scanty herbage. 

 This they kept up for three or four days, sometimes five 

 and six, without being knocked up in the slightest, in 

 the hot weather, too, in the country south of Wadi 



