RUMINANT QUADRUPEDS. 105 



he is thirsty, or needs water to moisten his food as he 

 eats it, he can force any amount that is required out of 

 this reservoir up into the throat. By this arrangement 

 the Camel can go without drinking for many days. 

 Sometimes travelers, who are suffering severely from 

 want of water, kill one of the Camels in their caravan 

 for the purpose of getting at the water in this reservoir. 



178. The Camel is a strange - looking animal. The 

 Pictorial Museum contains the following good descrip- 

 tion of it : " There is something strange and imposing in 

 the aspect of the gaunt and angular Camel, destitute, as 

 it confessedly is, of grace and animation. We are 

 amazed at its height, its uncouth proportions, its long, 

 thin neck, its meagre limbs, and the huge hump on its 

 back, which conveys the idea of distortion. Quietly it 

 stands in one fixed attitude, its long-lashed eyelids droop- 

 ing over the large dark eyes; it moves, and onward 

 stalks with slow and measured steps, as if Exercise were 

 painful. To complete the picture, it is covered with 

 shaggy hair irregularly disposed, here forming tangled 

 masses, there almost wanting. Its thick mobile upper 

 lip is deeply divided ; its feet are large and spreading, 

 the toes being merely tipped with little hoofs." 



179. The docility of the Camel is such that one man 

 can lead thirty, or even fifty of them, fastened together 

 in a row. The traveler mounts the Camel as it is kneel- 

 ing ; and as it rises, contrary to the habit of all other ani- 

 mals, upon its hind feet first, he will be thrown suddenly 

 over its head unless he is especially careful. The im- 

 portance of the Camel in the regions where it is found 

 can hardly be realized by us. It is essential, as you have 

 seen, wherever wide deserts are to be traversed ; and St. 

 Hilaire, in his Letters on Egypt, says that " without it 

 nearly the whole of Africa and one quarter of Asia might 

 perhaps have remained uninhabited." This statement is 

 rather too strong, but it shows what is the estimate of 

 the Camel's value by one who had traveled extensively 



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