60 PRODUCTIONS OP HOT COUNTRIES. 



weighing six or seven thousand pounds. Even 

 with this enormous bulk and weight it is an ani- 

 mal of quick motions, and will travel seventy or 

 eighty miles a day. The camel, so beautifully 

 called the "ship of the desert," is capable of endur- 

 ing intense heat, and, though burdened with a load" 

 of six hundred pounds, can perform a journey of 

 sixty miles in ten hours. Many dry and sterile 

 regions of the earth would have been impassable 

 by beasts of burden, but for this docile and patient 

 animal. By a singular and wonderful provision, 

 it is enabled to travel several days without drink- 

 ing, over burning sands and under a scorching sun, 

 where any other creature would perish. 



The ostrich, one of the largest birds, also dwells 

 in hot countries. It cannot fly, as its wings have 

 nothing but soft, downy feathers upon them. To 

 compensate it for this want, however, it can run 

 exceedingly fast, faster than the fleetest horse, and 

 would soon outstrip its pursuers, who hunt it for 

 the sake of its feathers, were it to go straight for- 

 wards ; but it runs from side to side, and is soon 

 caught. Some of the largest snakes, as the boa 

 constrictor, have also their haunts in hot countries. 



The people inhabiting warm climates are seldom 

 so strong or so active as the natives of temperate 

 regions. The soil is, however, so fertile, that the 

 finest fruit and grain are produced with little or no 

 labour. The fields are always green, and the trees 

 never stripped of their leaves ; but blossom and 

 fruit, seed-time and harvest, are in constant sue- 



