AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 387 



ACCLIMATION AND AMERICAN CAMEL REGION. 



The natural abode of the Camel is in regions abounding with 

 sand or dreary deserts Avhere food and water are scanty, and ex- 

 posure to long protracted privations unavoidable ; and as deserts 

 exist in comparative cold as well as wai*m climates, so does the 

 Camel or Dromedary. 



Recent explorations demonstrate that the high table lands of 

 Texas, New Mexico, Utah, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, 

 lying between the 30th and 40th degrees of North latitude, are 

 fitted for camel travel ; for over those lands the varieties of the 

 cactus abound, and the soil is sandy and unproductive, save in 

 the small valleys found contiguous to streams. The climate in 

 these regions maintains about the same isothermal lines with 

 those of Tiu'key, in Asia, or Algeria, in Africa. 



Mr. Bartlett, late commissioner for running the boundary line 

 between the United States and Mexico, thus remarks : " From 

 my experience of nearly three years with horses, mules, asses 

 and oxen, and with wagons, carts and hacks, I do not hesitate to 

 hazard the opinion that the introduction of camels and dromeda- 

 ries would prove an immense benefit to our present means of 

 transportation, that they would be a great saving to animal life, 

 and would present facilities for crossing our broad deserts and 

 prairies not possessed by any other domestic animal now in use. 

 The entire route from the Mississippi to California, particularly 

 that south of Santa Fe by the Gila, where there are no mount- 

 ains to cross, and also the great highway over the table lands of 

 Mexico, are well adapted to his habits. 



INTRODUCTION OF THE CAMEL INTO THE U. STATES. 



The proposed introductipn of the Camel or Dromedary into 

 the U. States of America, if successful, will prove an event of 

 great importance, both in a commercial and in a military point 

 of view. It also v;ill interest and benefit the agriculturist in 

 the region of country wliere they may become acclimated and 

 are found to propagate, which will no doubt prove to be in the 

 southwestern portion of the Union, west of the Mississippi river. 

 Here the climate, soil, and productions of the earth nearest ap- 

 proaches to similar parallels of latitude in the eastern continent, 

 where the Camel is found of the greatest value — converting the 

 otherwise desert waste into a pathway for the pursuit of com- 

 merce, emigration and pilgrimage to the holy shrine of the Ma- 

 hometan. 



