The Camel. 23 



found in the reticulum, and in part of the paunch, are 

 very large in proportion, and are surrounded by 

 muscular bands, enabling them to be closed at will, 

 their contents not mingling with the food contained 

 in the stomach. In these cells is reserved the water 

 drunk by the animal, a small quantity of which can 

 be released and allowed to flow into the stomach as 

 occasion requires, the rest remaining in the reservoirs 

 until needed. By this arrangement a camel is able 

 to store up sufficient liquid for five or six days, a 

 provision of the greatest service in crossing the hot 

 arid desert where water is unprocurable. 



It would seem that by practice the camel is enabled 

 to store away a larger quantity of water than had 

 previously been the case, for an old and experienced 

 animal will contrive to lay up half as large again a 

 stock as it could when young and unused to desert 

 travelling. 



It has sometimes happened in a caravan that the 

 water has run short, and the only alternative has been 

 to kill some of the camels in order to obtain the 

 water contained in their stomachs. It is then found 

 to be of a pale greenish colour, and very unpleasant 

 to the taste. Yet it is preferable to dying of thirst, and 

 is really hardly more disagreeable than the water 

 contained in the leathern bags carried on the camel's 

 backs, which is heated by the sun, besides tasting 

 very strongly of the tar with which the seams are 

 dressed. 



This structure presents a singular analogy to the 

 blood-reservoir of the whale, by which it is enabled 

 to spend a considerable time beneath the surface of 

 the water. A large supply of blood being purified 

 and aerated in the lungs, is stored away in a mass of 

 blood-vessels set apart for that purpose, whence a 

 portion is introduced into the circulatory apparatus 



