THE CAMEL. 209 



scent a man several versts off, see him, ho-wever cautiously he 

 might approach, from a great distance, and hear the slightest 

 rustle of his footsteps. Once aware of its danger, it instantly 

 takes to flight, and never stops for some dozens or even hundred 

 of versts. A camel I fired at certainly ran twenty versts without 

 stopping, as I saw by its traces, and probably farther still, had 

 I been able to follow it, for it turned into a ravine, off our line of 

 march. One would suppose that so uncouth an animal would be 

 incapable of climbing mountains ; the contrary, however, is actually 

 the case, for we often' saw the tracks and droppings of camels in 

 the narrowest gorges, and on slopes steep enough to bafl&e the 

 hunter. Here their footprints are mingled with those of the 

 mountain sheep (Pseudo Nahoor) and the arkari (0ms PoZi). So 

 incredible did this appear that we could hardly believe our eyes 

 when we saw it. The wild camel is very swift, its pace being 

 almost invariably a trot. In this respect, however, the domesti- 

 cated species will, in a long distance, overtake a good galloper. 

 It is very weak when wounded, and drops directly it is hit 

 by a bullet of small calibrcj such as the hunters of Lob-nor 

 use." 



That there are camels of the Bactrian or two-humped species 

 in small numbers roaming wild, does not rest on Colonel 

 Prezhevalsky's evidence alone, for other writers of a later date 

 have seen them ; but whether they belong to the original stock 

 that existed in a state of nature is still, and probably will remain, 

 an unanswerable question. Arguments are freely used on both 

 sides, and even dogmatic assertions appear occasionally in the 

 public prints upon the subject, but invincible proof is wanting. 



The Bactrian camel (Gamelus Bactrianus), besides having the dis- 

 tinguishing sign of the two humps, is a coarser-looking animal 

 than the Arabian beast. It is also stouter and more muscular, 

 and is covered with shaggy hair, which is very long under the 

 throat, and generally of a dark or dirty brown colour, but it also 

 varies, not only in colour, from dark to light, but in size, 

 strength, speed, and endurance, according to the breed and 



climate. 



They are much rarer camels than their one-humped brethren. 



p 



