GEOORArmCAL RANGE. 



9 



lessly applied, until the animal staggers on in sheer desperation, 

 or succumbs sullenly to his fate, I have seen Arabs belaboring 

 their beasts most cruelly because they hesitated to rise under 

 their lieavy packs, perchance for the twentieth time, at the mere 

 whim of their drivers. Admiral Porter, who commanded the 

 "Supply" when the government camels were brought over in 

 that ship, says, that on one occasion, when a camel was slow to 

 rise, one of the natives in charge suggested pouring a bucket 

 full of scalding hot pitch over his back. Porter dryly observes 

 that he had no doubt of the efficacy of the application, as re- 

 garded the camel's getting up quickly, but he preferred a more 

 merciful method, which had the desired effect. Last summer, 

 having some camels to send by raijroad from Marseilles to 

 Paris, I dispatched them from the ship to the station in charge 

 of an Arab, with instructions not to embark them until my 

 arrival. When I got there I found one of the animals covered 

 with ropes, and six Frenchmen pulling awa}^ on them as for 

 dear life, to drag him into the cars. Of course the camel re- 

 sisted, and the six Frenchmen were getting the w^orst of it. I 

 ordered the ropes cut adrift, told the Arab to bring up a bag 

 of barley, wherewith in a persuasive manner he was to precede 

 the animals into the car. The camels at once saw the point of 

 the joke, and yielded gracefully to the suaviter in modo. 



Geographical Range. 



Nothing can be more erroneous than the opinion which com- 

 monly prevails with regard to the geographical range of the 

 camel. Because he is better adapted than any other animal to 

 certain local conditions, and, indeed, by his remarkable powers 

 of abstinence and endurance, has bridged over vast spaces of 

 the earth's surface, not otherwise penetrable by man, many 

 have inferred that, apart from these influences of soil and 

 climate, he would deteriorate and become comparatively use- 

 less. General literature fosters this idea, and associates the 

 camel exclusively with the hot sun, the shifting sands, and 

 waving palms of the desert. But the facts of the case destroy 

 this poetical illusion. The principal countries w^here the camel 

 has been in extensive use for centuries lie between the 15th 

 and 52d degrees of north latitude — the large portion being in 

 the north temperate zone. Johnson, in his Physical Atlas, 



