THE HOOFED MAMMALS. 



137 



Fig. 74.— The Arabian Camel. 



especially on. inclined roads, they are almost useless. The Bactrian camel, 

 which is doubtless a native of Asia, is much better suited for traversing high 

 mountains and enduring cold than the Arabian species. Regarding the two- 

 humped camels of the neighbourhood of Yarkand, it has long been a disputed 

 point -whether these are 

 really wild, or whether 

 they are the descendants of 

 an originally domesticated 

 race. Something towards 

 clearing up this question 

 has been done by Major O. 

 S. Cumberland, who had 

 the good fortune to shoot 

 one of these animals. Its 

 skin and skull were sub- 

 mitted to Mr. Blanford, 

 who reports that they be- 

 longea to a two-humped 

 camel, in which the humps 

 were represented by large 

 tufts of hair. The skull 

 agreed fairly well with 



that of a domestic Bactrian camel (0. hactrianns), and differed from that of the 

 single-humped Arabian camel (C. di-oinedarius). Whether, however, s)ich 

 differences, as presented by the former, were indicative of the exist- 

 ence of a distinct race, the materials at hand were insufficient to deter- 

 mine. In regard to these camels in their native heme. Major Cumberland 

 writes as follows : — " The nabitat of the wild camel is the Gobi steppe from 

 Khotan to Lob-Nor. Except when snow lies on the ground, these animals 



may be met with here and there 

 along the old bed of the Yarkand 

 and Tarim Rivers, which they 

 freqr.snt for the pools of brackish 

 water that are to be found here 

 and there. But as soon as the 

 snow falls they move off into the 

 desert, as if then independent 

 of the water-supply. They pre- 

 fer the snow, I imagine, as 

 being less salt than the water, 

 although it also is impregnated 

 to a certain extent soon after 

 it falls. The camel is very shy 

 in its habits, and, so far as I 

 could ascertain, has never been 

 caught or domesticated. The 

 natives told me that no horse in 

 the country could catch the camels in the deep sand of the region they 

 frequent. They appear to me to be distinct from the Bactrian camel ; 

 they are less stumpy in build, the hair is fimer, closer, and shorter. They 

 vary in colour, like the domestic species, from dark brown to lightish 

 dun. Their origin has yet to be traced. I take it that they have sprung 



Fig. 75.— The Baoteian Camel. 



