WHERE THE WILD CAMEL LIVES 833 
he crept in among the tamarisks with the noiseless stealth 
of a panther. We at once became aware of a herd of 
wild camel two hundred paces away. 
I always had my field-glass ready to hand, and was 
therefore able to follow the hunt that ensued from be- 
ginning to end. Kasim was armed with his primitive 
flint-lock, Islam Bai, who followed after him, had the 
Russian Berdan rifle. When Kasim fired, the camels 
started, gazed a few seconds attentively in the direction 
from which the danger threatened, then turned right round 
and w’ent off towards the north at a trot. They did not 
however travel very fast ; possibly they had not recovered 
from their surprise, or dicl not quite understand what it 
was all about. The camel at which Kasim shot went 
off at a slow, heavy, clumsy trot. We ran after the 
animal and came up with him the moment after he fell. 
He was still alive; but a knife-thrust in the neck put 
an end to his sufferings. 
That evening the camp was all excitement, bustle, and 
talk. We had almost given up hope of even seeing a wild 
camel, and yet there one lay — I had almost said as large 
as life — before us. 
I of course examined the creature from top to toe. It 
proved to be a twelve-year-old male, about the same size 
as our tame camels. 'I he hair was short, except on the 
under side of the throat, the neck, the top of the head, 
the humps, and the outer sides of the upper part of the 
forelegs, so that in comparison with our domestic camels, 
he looked rather bare. He measured 10 ft. 10 in. in 
length from the under-lip along the belly to the root of 
the tail ; was 7 feet in girth between the humps ; the 
soles of the fore-feet were 8:|: inches bi-oad and 8|- inches 
long, and their pads were coarser and less worn than 
those of the domestic camel. The hoofs too were longer 
and more claw-like, so that they left a plainer impression 
in the sand than those of the tame camel. The upper lip 
was a little less indented and shorter ; the under lip did 
not hang ; the eye was wilder. The humps were smaller, 
more regularly shaped, and more erect. The humps of 
