OR, PLAIN 



privation. That is to say, this 

 tatty matter is absorbed by the 

 system, and nourishes it, until 

 fresh supplies of food are ob- 

 tained. 



540. 



When the camel is in a region 

 of fertility, the hump becomes 

 plump and expanded ; but after a 

 protracted journey in the wilder- 

 ness, it becomes shrivelled and 

 reduced in size. The Bactrian 

 camel has two humps, the Ara- 

 bian camel, called also the drome- 

 dary, only one. 



The beneficence of these provisions is fully 

 manifest ; since, notwithstanding them, when 

 camels are urged by man to perform excessive 

 desert-journeys, many of them perish in the burn- 

 ing wastes. Captain Bourcher, who travelled upon 

 camels across the Libyan Desert, states that some 

 of the camels which had become exhausted, 

 were left to perish ; and he observed the skele- 

 tons of many more which had been previously 

 left, and whose flesh had been devoured by vul- 

 tures. In order to hasten their death, their 

 fore-legs are generally tied together, to prevent 

 them from crawling about and procuring a scanty 

 supply of herbage, to protract the period of 



TEACHING. 191 



their suffering; for, as to hope recovery for anj 

 exhausted creature that may be left in those 

 dismal places, there is none. The cries of the 

 abandoned camels, when the caravans leave 

 them, are among the most heart-piercing that 

 are uttered by any animal ; and the death of the 

 camel under such circumstances, is one of the 

 most melancholy sights. 



The ox tribe, the most useful 

 and valuable of the ruminants, 

 consists of eight species : the 

 ancient bison ; the bison, or 

 American buffalo, e ; the mush 

 ox ; the gazed ; the grunting ox ; 

 the buffalo of Southern Africa ; 

 the common buffalo ; and common 

 domestic cattle, 5. 



5 



541. 



The ox has been domesticated 

 from a very remote period. Cattle 

 were kept by the early descendants 

 of Adam (Gen. iv. 20). Pre- 

 served by Noah from the waters 

 of the flood, the original breed 

 of our present oxen must have 

 been in the neighbourhood of 

 Mount Ararat ; and from thence, 

 dispersing over the face of the 

 globe, altering by climate, by 

 food, and by cultivation, origi- 

 nated the various breeds of 

 modern ages. 



