826 
THROUGH ASIA 
to lose the opportunity of getting a skin, which I hoped 
would eventually reach Stockholm. My own short- 
comings as a sportsman were more than counterbalanced 
by Islam Bai and the two men from the Khotan-daria, 
who were all keen hunters, and were consumed with 
desire, not only to see this animal of which they had 
merely heard speak, but also to assail it in its desert 
home. In fact, the wild camel was our chief topic of 
conversation all through the forests of the Keriya-daria. 
My wise friend, Ahmed the Hunter, declared positively : 
“ They are descended from the tame camels kept by the 
dwellers in the ancient towns ” ; and let Przhevalsky 
think what he may, I have a suspicion that Ahmed 
is right. If I may judge from the collection of terra- 
cotta camels, which I discovered at Borasan, and which 
are probably two thousand years old, the camel was 
even then regarded as the chief domestic animal of the 
country ; and what is more reasonable to suppose than 
that the buried towns in the Takla-makan Desert 
maintained communication with China and India by 
means of them ? When the .sand advanced, smothering 
the vegetation and filling up the channels, these ships 
of the desert no doubt found opportunity to free them- 
selves from the tyrannical yoke of man. In their freedom 
they have increased to such an extent, that they are 
now found in numbers both in this and in other parts 
of the Desert of Gobi. The supposition is perhaps 
bold, but to me it seems probable, that if we could trace 
the wild camel’s pedigree, we should only have to go 
back a hundred generations or so in order to reach the 
tame camel. And for this belief I will now' adduce a 
few reasons. 
Przhevalsky met with the wild camel in the Altyn- 
tagh and near Lop-nor ; and from the observations he 
made, concluded that “all the present wild camels are 
strictly descended from wild ancestors ; but they have 
presumably some time or another been crossed with 
tame cameks, which have escaped from captivity. The 
latter — if indeed they were capable of reproduction — 
