PURCHASING 317 



required in large numbers, unless sufficient for the 

 purpose are easily procurable. 



Again, it is as well to know something about the Measure- 

 approximate measurements and weight of camels, as it weight 

 will to a certain extent enable you to arrive at the 

 animal's weight-carrying capacity, because you may 

 accept as a hard-and-fast rule that for hard and con- 

 tinuous work he will only carry one-third of his own 

 weight, or a very trifling amount over it. 



The last thing to do but by no means the least, for Age 

 it is equal in importance to the first when you have 

 decided on your camel is to ascertain his age, and the 

 vital importance of this cannot be overlooked. A camel 

 may be worked at four years of age ; but when you are 

 buying him for service never get one under five or over 

 fifteen years old, though at a pinch you may go up to 

 twenty. He can be worked up to twenty, and some 

 authorities assert up to twenty-five years of age, and I 

 see no reason, if not worked too young, why he should 

 not work up to that age. It is stated that he lives up 

 to forty and fifty, and even beyond that, and the 

 Russian writer that I once before have quoted says 

 that the Kirghiz camel lives to fifty years. I cannot 

 speak on this point from my own experience, but from 

 all I have gathered am of opinion that he is a long- 

 lived animal. A camel when rising five years sheds his 

 two front sucking teeth one on each side of the first Teeth 

 ones these are full grown at six years, and he also 

 gets two more teeth when rising seven, which become 

 full grown at seven years. When he is eight years old 

 his tushes appear ; and by the time he is nine years 

 old his full set of teeth is complete. After this the 



