CHAPTEE XXVII 



AVILD CAMELS 



It was during these aquatic rides in search of the nestino- 

 places of the flamingo that we first fell in with wild camels. 



Vague yarns, more or less circumstantial, that such animals 

 wandered over the farther marismas, we remember as early as 

 1872. The thing, however, had appeared too incredible for 

 consideration — at any rate, we gave it none. But in that 

 spring of 1883 we one day found ourselves face to face with two 

 unmistakable camels. They stood gazing intently about half a 

 mile away — a huge, shaggy, hump-backed beast, accompanied by 

 a second not half its size. The pair wheeled and made off" ere we 

 had approached within 400 yards, and something " game-like " in 

 their style prompted our first and last attempt at pursuit. The 

 camels simply ran away from us, splashing through slippery mud 

 and water, two feet deep, at double our horses' speed, and raisin o- 

 in their flight a tearing trail of foam as of twin torpedo-boats. 



Since then we have fallen in wdth camels on very many 

 occasions, singly, in twos and threes, or in herds of a dozen to 

 twenty and upwards, old and young together. It is, in fact, only 

 necessary to ride far enough into the marisma to make sure of 

 seeing some of these extraordinary monsters startling the desolate 

 horizon, and silhouetted in incongruous juxtaposition with ranks 

 of rosy flamingoes and flotillas of swimming waterfowl. 



The whole story of these wild camels and their origin has been 

 narrated in Wild Sijcdn. Briefly summarised, the animals were 

 introduced to Spain in 1829 by the Marquis de Villafranca 

 (House of Medina-Sidonia) with the object of employing them in 

 transport and agriculture, as they are so commonly used on the 

 opposite shores of Africa. But local difficulties ensued — chiefly 

 arising from the intense fear and repugnance of horses towards 

 camels, which resulted in numerous accidents — and eventually 



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