CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



573 



of Job's "substance (Job i. 8) consisted of three thousand camels;" and the third messenger of 

 evil informs him (i. 17,) that "the Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and 

 have carried them away." When, after his afflictions, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more 

 than his beginning (xlii. 12), "six thousand camels" formed a portion of the blessing. 



The immense strength, the patient and quiet disposition, and the amount of hardship and priva- 

 tion which they are able to bear, have justly given to the camels a high place among domestic ani- 

 mals; it is even difficult to conceive how the affairs of mankind could have been carried on in the 

 regions occupied by them without the assistance they have rendered. The inhabited parts of these 

 countries are separated from each other by wide tracts of desert, frequently almost entirely destitute 

 of herbage, or at all events of any that a horse would deign to eat ; in many cases the sandy 

 ground would yield under the horse's hoofs, so that he would be exhausted before half his day's 

 journey was done, and all the while he would be exposed to the parching rays of the sun, without 

 a chance of obtaining water more than once in three or four days. To a certain extent these 

 eastern countries are as effectually separated from each other as if the sea rolled its waves between 

 them ; in either case some special means of passing over the interval is required. This is afforded 

 by the camel. The desert is his home ; he can feed upon the scanty vegetation that springs up 

 here and there amid the arid wastes ; his foot, by a curious provision of nature, is adapted for 

 the sandy ground, over which he can accordingly pass without tiring for hours together, with a 

 load of five or six hundred weight upon his back ; and lastly, by another singular provision of 

 nature, he can journey on beneath the burning sun without drinking for several days. It is no 



A CARAVAN CROSSING THE DESERT. 



wonder that the Arabs, in their poetical way, should have given the name of the " Ship of the 

 Desert'" to this valuable creature. It has recently become specially interesting to us Americans, 

 from the fact that it has been lately used in traversing the deserts which lie between New Mexico 

 and California, and is likely to become an important means of communication between these portions 

 of our extended territories. 



With regard to the power of the camel to support thirst, there has generally prevailed .some 



, exaggeration. It has been stated that this animal will bear deprivation of s wat'er for a period of 

 no less than fifteen days ; but Burckhardt states that the time varies greatly, according to the 

 breed and the country in which the camels have been accustomed to travel. Thus the Egyptian 

 and Syrian Camels require frequent draughts during the summer months, while those which jour- 



,' ney in the Arabian deserts will go for four or five days without drinking. The same author says 



