200 WILD ANIMALS. 



known plant that lie had been caught in the act of eating. In a few 

 hours he died. There is no more stupid animal than the camel. 

 Nature has implanted in most animals an instinctive knowledge of 

 the plants suitable for food, and they generally avoid those that are 

 poisonous ; but the camel will eat indiscriminately anything that 

 is green ; and if in a country where the plant exists that is well- 

 known by the Arabs as the ' camel poison,' watchers must always 

 accompany the animals while grazing. The most fatal plant is a 

 creeper, very succulent, and so beautifully green that its dense 

 foliage is most attractive to the stupid victim, The stomach of 

 the camel is very subject to inflammation, which is rapidly fatal. 

 I have frequently seen them, after several days of desert march- 

 ing, arrive in good pasture, and die, within a few hours, of 

 inflammation caused by repletion. It is extraordinary how they 

 can exist upon the driest and apparently most non-nutritious food. 

 When other animals are starving the camel manages to pick up a 

 subsistence, eating the ends of barren, leafless twigs, the dried 

 sticks of certain shrubs, and the tough, dry, paper-hke substance 

 of the dome-palm, about as succulent a breakfast as would be a 

 green umbrella and a Times newspaper. With intense greediness 

 the camel, although a hermit in simplicity of fare in hard times, 

 feeds voraciously when in abundant pasture, always seeking the 

 greenish shrubs. The poison-bush becomes a fatal bait. . . , 

 Their peculiarity of constitution enables the camel to overcome 

 obstacles of nature that would otherwise be insurmountable. Not 

 only can he travel over the scorching sand of the withering 

 deserts, but he never seeks the shade. When released from his 

 burden he kneels by his load in the burning sand, and luxuriates 

 in the glare of a sun that drives all other beasts to shelter. The 

 peculiar spongy formation of the foot renders the camel exceed- 

 ingly sure, although it is usual to believe that it is only adapted 

 for flat sandy plains. I have travelled over mountains so preci- 

 pitous that no domestic animal but the camel could have accom- 

 plished the task with a load. The capability is not shared gene- 

 rally by the race, but by a breed belonging to the Hadendowa 

 Arabs, between the Red Sea and Taka. There is quite as great 

 a variety in the breeds of camels as of horses. Those most 



