CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RTJMINANTIA. 
5Y3 
of Job's "substance (Job i. S) consisted of tbree thousand camels;" and the third messenger of 
evil informs bim (i. 17,) that "the Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and 
have carried them away." When, after his afflictions, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more 
than his beginning (xlii. 12), "six thousand camels" formed a portion of the blessing. 
The immense strength, the patient and quiet disposition, and the amount of hardship and priva- 
tion which they are able to bear, have justly given to the camels a high place among domestic ani- 
mals; it is even difficiilt to conceive how the affairs of mankind could have been carried on in the 
regions occupied by them Avithout the assistance they have rendered. The inhabited parts of these 
countries are separated from each other by wide tracts of desert, frequently almost entirely destitute 
of herbage, or at all events of any that a horse would deign to eat ; in many cases the sandy 
ground would yield under the horse's hoofs, so that he would be exhausted before half his day's 
journey was done, and all the while he would be exposed to the parching rays of the sun, without 
a chance of obtainiug water more than once in three or four days. To a certain extent these 
eastern countries are as effectually separated from each other as if the sea rolled its Avaves between 
them ; in either case some special means of passing over the interval is required. This is afforded 
by the camel. The desert is his home ; he can feed upon the scant)' vegetation that springs up 
here and there amid the arid wastes ; his foot, by a curious provision of nature, is adapted for 
the sandy ground, over which he can accordingly pass without tiring for hours together, with a 
load of five or six hundred weight upon his back ; and lastly, by another singular provision of 
nature, he can journey on beneath the burning sun without drinking for several days. It is no 
A CARAVAN CROSSING THE DESERT. 
wonder that the Arabs, in their poetical way, should have given the name of the '■'■Ship of the 
DeserC^ to this valuable creature. It has recently become specially interesting to us Americans, 
from the fact that it has been lately used in traversing the deserts which lie between N"ew Mexico 
and California, and is hkely to become an important means of communication between these portions 
of our extended territories. 
"With regard to the power of the camel to support thirst, there has generally prevailed some 
exaggeration. It has been stated that this animal will bear deprivation of water for a period of 
no less than fifteen days ; but Burckhardt states that the time varies greatly, according to the 
breed and the country in which the camels have been accustomed to travel. Thus the Egyptian 
and Syrian Camels require frequent draughts during the summer months, while those which jour- 
ney in the Arabian deserts will go for four or five days without drinking. The same author says 
