32 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



stomach is peculiar to the camel, and it is so large as to contain a vast quantity of water, where it 

 remains without corrupting, or mixing with the other aliments. When the animal is pressed by thirst, 

 and has occasion for water to macerate its dry food in ruminating, he makes part of the water mount 

 into his paunch, or even as high as the oesophagus, by a simple contraction of certain muscles. It is 

 by this singular construction that the camel is enabled to pass several days without drinking, and to 

 take at a time a prodigious quantity of water, which remains in the reservoir pure and limpid, because 

 neither the liquors of the body, nor the juices of digestion can mix with it. Travellers, when much 

 oppressed with drought, are sometimes obliged to kill their camels in order to have a supply of drink 

 from these reservoirs. 



The ancients have held that camels are in a condition for propagating at three years of age ; but this 

 assertion is attended with suspicion, for in three years they have not acquired half their growth. The 

 time of gestation is nearly twelve months, and, like all large quadrupeds, the females bring forth only 

 one at a birth. The young camel sucks its mother twelve months ; but, when meant to be trained in 

 order to render him strong and robust in the chase, he is allowed to suck and pasture at freedom 

 during the first four years, and is not loaded nor made to perform any labour, until he be four years old. 

 The milk is copious and thick, and, when mixed with a large quantity of water, affords an excellent 

 nourishment to them. The females are not obliged to labour, but are allowed to pasture and to breed 

 at full liberty. The advantage derived from their produce and their milk is perhaps superior to what 

 would be drawn from their working. In general, the fatter the camels are, the more capable they are 

 of enduring great fatigue. Their bundles seem to proceed from a redundance of nourishment, for 

 during long journeys, in which their conductor is obliged to husband their food, and when they often 

 suffer great hunger and thirst, these bunches gradually diminish and become so flat, that the place 

 where they were is only perceptible by the length of the hair, which is always longer on those parts 

 than on the rest of the back. The meagreness of the body augments in proportion as the bunches 

 decrease. The Moors, who transport all sorts of merchandise from Barbary and Numidia as far as 

 Ethiopia, set out with their camels well laden, which are very fat and vigorous, and they bring back 

 the same animals so meagre that they commonly sell at a low price. 



The general height of the camel, measured from the top of the dorsal bunch to the ground, is about 

 six feet and a half, and from the top of the head, when the animal elevates it, not less than nine feet. 

 The head, however, is generally so carried as to be nearly on a level with the bunches, or rather 

 below them, as the animal bends its neck in its general posture. The head is small, the neck very 

 long ; the body of a long meagre shape, the legs rather slender, and the tail, which is slightly tufted 

 at the end, reaches to the joints of the hinder legs. 



The camel is generally of a dusky brown colour with a rusty tinge. Its hair is very fine, and is 

 employed for making pencils for painters and in the manufacture of various stuffs. It attains its full 

 strength at about the age of six years, and lives about forty or fifty years. 



It' we consider, under one point of view, all the qualities of this animal and all the advantages derived 

 from him, it must be acknowledged that, in point of utility, he is not inferior to any other known 

 quadruped. Gold and silk constitute not the true riches of the East ; the camel is the genuine 

 treasure of the East. He is more valuable than the elephant, and perhaps in utility is equal to the 

 horse, the ass, and the ox, when their powers are united. The flesh of a young camel is as good and 

 wholesome as veal. The Africans and Arabs fill their pots and tubs with it, which is fried with 

 grease and preserved in this manner during the whole of the year for their ordinary repast. 



