6 REINDEER AND SNOW-CAMELS 



in the case of any other breed of domesticated animal, 

 but has relegated one solely to the use of the yellow 

 men, and the other to the service of the black or brown 

 men. The camel of the North, which can endure not 

 only thirst, but freezing cold, long spells of hunger, and 

 a bed of snow, is not only the stronger, but the better 

 equipped species. Before the summer heat it sheds its 

 coat ; but by September it grows a garment of fur 

 almost as thick as a buffalo robe, and equally cold- 

 resisting. It is far more strongly built than the 

 Southern camel. It does not ' split ' when on slippery 

 ground, though it falls on moist, wet clay, which yields 

 to the foot. On ice and frozen snow it stands firmly, 

 and can travel far, partly because it has developed a 

 harder foot-pad than the Southern species, partly because 

 it has a kind of claw-toe projecting beyond the pad of 

 the foot. Major Leonard states that many years ago 

 General Harlan marched two thousand Bactrian camels 

 four hundred miles, crossed the Indian Caucasus in ice 

 and snow, and lost only one animal, and that by an 

 accident. 



The strongest proof that this is a beast made to 

 endure not heat but cold, not the hot sands but the 

 frozen snows, is the method of management adopted by 

 the Mongol owners of the herds. ' Nothing will 

 induce an experienced Mongol to undertake a journey 

 on camels in the hot season,' writes Prejvalski. But 



