MANAGEMENT 263 



the other half in watching the natives. Your energies, 

 powerful though they be, cannot cope with impossi- 

 bilities, and you have not sufficient time to devote to 

 your camels because soldiers and drivers occupy it 

 all day. 



On the march all drivers and soldiers should be Laden 

 made to walk. The addition to the load on a camel of should not 

 100 Ib. and upwards makes all the difference. , In 999 be ridden 

 cases out of 1,000 he is already overweighted, or carry- 

 ing all he can. The immediate result of this over- 

 weight is that he cannot walk up to his usual pace. 

 He is then driven and urged on to keep up with those 

 not so handicapped. Eesult No. 2 is that he is over- 

 paced. Result No. 3 is rapid loss of appetite, conse- 

 quently of condition. Finale, total collapse and break- 

 down. Breeders and owners never ride their camels 

 when laden, not to my knowledge at least. They 

 usually have a few empty ones that they keep for 

 emergencies, which they use when tired. This question 

 of drivers is a sore topic with me, and one on which I 

 could fill pages ; but that would not answer my present 

 purpose. All I have tried to do is to convince the 

 reader that it is one of the existing evils in our very 

 faulty system of transport, and if I have done that I 

 am satisfied. 



As I have previously remarked, we can learn many 

 lessons from the French in their management of camel 

 convoys in Algeria, and this is one. In the pamphlet 

 by Lieut. Massoutier that I have so often alluded to 

 all through this work, he states that no soldiers, &c., 

 of the Commissariat or Ordnance Staff are allowed 

 near the camels for fear they should overdrive them in 



