578 
VERTEBRATA. 
I may speak for every inaii in. our party, wiien I say there is not one of tliom who woalu not pre- 
fer the most indifFerent of our camels to four of our best mules, and I look forward hopefully to 
the time when they will be in general use in all parts of our country." 
This report contains an interesting account of the admirable manner in which these animals 
swam the Colorado River, thus removing all doubt as to their capacity for this species of service. 
Lieutenant Beale arrived at San Francisco, and the editor of a -leading journal of that city says : 
" The experiment of the camels and dromedaries has proved a triumphant success. .In opposition 
to the opinions of many United States officers, they have shown themselves admirably adapted 
for traversing the waste:? of Western America. In some instances these wonderful animals went 
a week, and in one ten days, without water — not because it did not exist on the route, but from 
a lack of desire for it ; and on the tenth day the animal drank with comparative indifference. 
They could go, if required, over two weeks without tasting water. Their food is of the simplest 
and coarsest description ; they eat, as they progress, whatever grows on the way-side, bending 
their long necks and thrusting their heads alike into the narrowest <;i"6vices, for the cactus or the 
stunted verdure, or cropping the leaves from the boughs of the trees, without in the least retard- 
ing their speed. Truly they may be called the ships of the desert, and, when taken in compari- 
son with mules, horses, or cattle, which require food almost as regularly as man, they seem 
adapted bv nature to tho novel task to which our government has now applied them."^' 
THE DEAD CA.MEL AXD THE VULTURES, 
* In the autumn of 1855 the United States storeship Supply, under command of Lieutenant Porter, was sent to 
the Mediterranean to obtain camels to be taken to Texas and tried, so as to ascertain whether they were suited to 
that climate, and to that of New Mexico and California. Thirty-three were procured, mostly in Egypt and Smyrna ; 
two being of the Bactrian and thirty-one of the Arabian species ; one was a cross called JBooghdee or Tuilu. With 
these the vessel sailed, and after a rough passage arrived and landed them all safely at Indianola, Texas, May 14, 
1856. Five young ones were born on the passage; all, however, died but one. The correspondence with the War 
Department of Major Wayne, who accompanied Lieutenant Porter, and was chiefly charged with the purchase of the 
camels, has been published, and is exceedingly interesting, not only on account of the details of his operations, but 
the curious and minute information he gives respecting the camel in the countr ies where it has been in use for ages. 
A letter of Lieutenant Porter's to the War Department, giving an account of the expedition, has also been published, 
and is alike valuable and interesting. 
The storeship Supply made another successful trip to the Mediterranean for camels in 1856-7, but we have not the 
official details. In 1858, oue hundred camels were imported into New Orleans oa private speculation. 
