466 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



vision of any kind, the milch cows being enticed back to the yurt 

 solely by the calves which are tied up and tended there, while the 

 bulls roam about as they please, and often remain away from the 

 aul for several days at a time. 



Though all the large auls possess camels, by no means every 

 Kirghiz owns one, and even the richest among them seldom possess 

 more than fifty head. For the camel is rightly considered the most 

 perishable of all the stock owned by the nomadic herdsmen of this 

 steppe; its real home lies farther to the south and east. In the 

 part of the steppe through which we travelled only the two-humped 

 camel is reared, but south of the Balkhash Lake and in Central 

 Asia preference is given to the dromedary. The two species cross 

 here and produce strange hybrids in which the two humps are 

 a.lmost fused into one. 



The camel of the central steppe belongs to one of the lighter 

 breeds, and is therefore not nearly so massive and awkward as 

 those which are to be seen in most zoological gardens, but it is 

 quite as thickly covered with hair. Nevertheless, it does not stand 

 <!old nearly so well as the other domestic animals of the Kirghiz, 

 and requires a felt mat to kneel down or rest on, and even then it 

 ■often takes cold and dies. While shedding its hair it has to be envel- 

 oped in a felt covering, and in summer it has to be protected from 

 mosquitoes and gadflies else it will succumb; in short, it is the object 

 •of constant anxiety, and is therefore not suited to a poor man, who 

 feels every loss with threefold force. It resembles the dromedary 

 in being easily satisfied in the matter of food, and in displaying the 

 blind rage characteristic of the pairing-time, when it menaces even 

 its usually loved master, but, for the rest of the year, it differs from 

 the dromedary, very much to its own advantage, in docility and 

 gentleness. Having been accustomed to the dromedary for many 

 years, I was particularly struck by these excellent qualities in the 

 steppe camel; I hardly recognized the race. The camel allows itself 

 to be caught without resisting, and kneels down to be laden, if not 

 altogether without grumbling, at least without the horrible, nerve- 

 shattering bellowing of the dromedary. Even at a trot it carries 

 light burdens uncomplainingly, covering twenty miles or more in 



