WATERING 147 



a trifle overdrawn. Even in hot weather, I have time 

 after time worked the same camels in the desert for 

 four or five days at a stretch, without water and under 

 a hot sun, with the best results ; and as we have seen 

 they will abstain up to ten days under good manage- 

 ment and with green pasture. And if on such 

 occasions you work them at night, and graze them by 

 day, they will stand it well enough, and the after effects 

 will be reduced to a minimum. As for a fit desert 

 camel, even in the hottest weather, dying straight away 

 after five days' abstinence, that is utter nonsense. At 

 that rate I ought to have seen thousands die ; though 

 it is quite probable that they would do so subsequently, 

 if further overtaxed and used as on service. 



Lieutenant Massoutier says that ' in summer, when Daily 



watering 



working, a camel should nave water every two or three when in 

 days, and as a rule he should be watered whenever there 

 is a favourable opportunity, for after long abstinence 

 camels will rush to the water and soon foul it, and in 

 such case they should always be watered two days 

 running.' The fact of their fouling the water is after 

 all a mere trifle which can be prevented in comparison 

 to the really weighty one of daily watering, which 

 Lieutenant Massoutier does not seem to clearly com- 

 prehend, or be decided about, although he recognises 

 the value of frequent watering. The very fact of the 

 intense eagerness and longing for water that camels 

 display after a long fast clearly and intelligibly proves 

 that they require it oftener, and that it is simply nature 

 asserting itself. What stronger proof, therefore, can 

 we have than this of the virtue of daily watering the 

 necessity, in fact, of leaving it to Nature herself ? 



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