54 POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 
ALPACA. 
It is only a species of the utmost tenacity which could for 
fifty centuries or more withstand constant use and abuse 
by man without being altered out of all resemblance to its 
original form. All races of mankind and all breeds of 
domestic animals save one, change and continue to change, 
indefinitely, but the Camels apparently go on the same, 
forever. 
The Bactrian Camel, (Cameclus bactrianus), he of the long 
shaggy hair—when not shedding—and the two great humps, 
is the beast of heavy burden, the four-footed freight-car of 
the desert sands. He can carry 550 pounds of freight, for 
three or four days between drinks; but a swift pace is not 
for him. It is an animal of this remarkable species, from 
distant Turkestan, southwestern Asia, which daily in fine 
weather offers its services as a riding animal, at the stand 
near the Large Bird-House. 
It is unfortunate that the Bactrian Camel is in its finest 
pelage only in winter, when visitors to the Park are few, 
and camel-riding is out of the question. Promptly upon the 
approach of warm weather and a million visitors, it sheds 
its long, shaggy brown coat, and stands forth as if shorn by 
a shearer. Of this species, the Zoological Society possesses 
two fine specimens (the gift of Captain John S. Barnes), one 
of which will at all times be found regularly exhibited at 
the Camel House, close by the Crotona (southwest) En- 
trance. 
