4620 Tur ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1875. 
gives a large quantity of beautiful milk, allowing herself to be 
handled like a cow. At four years of age the young camel sheds 
two teeth, and continues this each year, like the sheep, until the 
seventh, when it is full mouthed, with eight teeth. At ten years it 
is in its prime; it may then be likened to a four-year-old horse, 
and it continues in good working condition for thirty years longer. 
But little trouble is necessary to break camels in. They are 
handled when quite young, and are capable of bearing a light load 
at three years old. 
Mr. Elden’s herd was accompanied by Afghan camel-drivers, who 
were accustomed to the animals from their boyhood, and hence has 
arisen an impression that Europeans are unequal to their manage- 
ment. This is entirely a mistake. A colonist can learn to handle 
camels in a few weeks, and with patience will manage them as 
well as an Afghan; but he must remember that a drove of camels 
require widely different treatment from a team of bullocks. The 
harsh shout and the whip employed in driving the latter must be 
entirely cast aside, and a system of kindness substituted. The 
most remarkable feature in the management of camels by the native 
drivers is the entire absence of punishment. They never beat them, 
and have impressed their fellow bushmen with a wholesome dread 
of the dire consequences that would follow the use of the stick. 
Mr. Stuckey considers them the most docile of animals. The result 
of several years’ experience has shown him that vice occurs less 
often with camels than with ordinary stock, and that the only reason 
why Europeans cannot manage them is the want of patience and 
experience. They are exceedingly sure of foot, and will travel 
over the most rugged places without inconvenience. 
The only difficulty in the way of rearing and breeding camels 
ad libitum is that paddocks are necessary to prevent them wan- 
dering in every direction ; for, unlike any other stock, they neither 
herd nor attach themselves to any particular place or part of the 
country. The native drivers are quite right in warning white men 
not to irritate the camel by ill usage, for when excited by anger he 
becomes a terrible antagonist, and his attack is likely enough to 
end fatally for any man who is the object of it. His strength, long 
neck, height, weight, and tremendous teeth or tusks make it almost 
impossible to beat him off single-handed, and he has an ugly habit 
of dropping on his knees upon the body of a prostrate enemy, 
which tends very much to reduce the chance of the latter escaping 
