48 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



be drawn from their obstinacy on some occasions, and 

 their impatient haste for vengeance on account of ill 

 usage on others : he who has given offence is sure to incur 

 their resentment the first opportunity; but having once 

 gratified this feeling, all remembrance of the injury is 

 past. From a knowledge of this fact, the camel-drivers, 

 when they have cause to apprehend this vindictive trait 

 in the animal, drop their clothes in his sight, and conceal 

 themselves ; the beast instantly rushes at them, tosses them 

 about and tramples upon them; when his anger being 

 satisfied, the driver re-appears, and the whole business is 

 forgotten. 



The Bactrian Camel (Camelus Bactrianus, Linn.) is 

 readily distinguished by the two hunches, one on the 

 shoulders, and the other on the croup : his height may be 

 considered as superior to the Arabian, and the bulk of his 

 body more considerable. The large breed of this species at- 

 tains seven feet and a half from the top of the hunches to 

 the ground ; the legs are proportionably short and the body 

 long ; they have a considerable fleece or coat of hair, gene- 

 rally of a dark brown colour. It forms a very large tuft, 

 covering the whole crown of the head, and is likewise very 

 abundant on the arm, and round the fore-knees, the throat 

 and hunches. Their rutting season commences at the end of 

 Autumn, and lasts nearly four months ; at the end of which 

 time their hunches are sunk into a mere skin : in the be- 

 ginning of spring they cast their coats, and are naked 

 nearly twq months. This species is considered as originally 

 extant in ancient Bactriana, the present Turkestan, and the 

 country we before indicated, under its ancient and indige- 

 nous names ; they have spread from thence over Tartary, 

 Persia, Thibet, and China. It appears that it is this spe- 

 cies noticed in the Antar, as !S unknown among the Arabs 

 or in Cahtan (i. e. Eastern Arabia), and only found in the 

 dominions of Kosroe or Irak." If we take the Tartarian 



