3 o 6 THE SOLDIER’S CAMEL 
which is as fresh as it is amusing. The occasion was 
the advance of the Candahar force from Quetta in the 
last Afghan War. At the crossing of the river Lora, 
at the foot of the Kojak-Amran range, the camels were 
swallowed up wholesale in the quicksands, owing 
entirely to their extraordinary stupidity. We quote 
this incident first, because the one serious drawback to 
the use of the camel consists precisely in this strange 
insensibility to danger — 
“ The river was not very broad, and not more than 
two feet deep in any part of the stream ; but the bed 
was full of quicksands, in whose treacherous depths 
many an unfortunate camel perished. It is only 
natural to suppose, that by sheer force of example 
an ordinarily intelligent animal would have learnt to 
avoid the danger, by seeing those which preceded it 
sinking deeper and deeper out of sight. Yet these 
camels plodded steadily on into the quicksands, 
though those which had preceded them were disap- 
pearing so fast that in many cases only their necks and 
heads were visible.” 
Not a single horse, elephant, or mule, was lost in this 
way in crossing the ford, and they one and all displayed 
a marked and consistent caution which was clearly the 
result of reason — 
“One elephant, which the officer commanding the 
6 - 1 1 Battery of the Royal Artillery lent to assist in 
extricating some camels which were being engulfed in 
the quicksands, showed an amount of sagacity which 
was positively marvellous. It was with the utmost 
