THE' STORY OF THE CAMEL. 
The Arabs who inhabit desert regions would be helpless without the 
camel, which animal is to them as essential as the railroad is to the American 
citizen. Northern Africa and Central Asia embrace regions thousands of 
miles in extent, in which the camel is almost without exception the only 
large animal that can thrive on the scant supply of vegetation and water af¬ 
forded. Hot, burning sand under the torrid sun offers no impediment to 
the sure-footed “ship of the desert,” as the camel is called. 
The camels of the Old World, and the llamas of the New, form a group of 
ruminating animals distinguished widely from the true ruminants, and which 
probably have had a totally distinct origin from more primitive even-toed 
members of this group. 
The camels of the Old World, of which there are two distinct species, are 
characterized by their great bodily size and bulk, and the presence of one or 
two large fatty humps on the back. The feet are broad, with the toes very 
imperfectly separated; and the tail is comparatively long, reaching nearly 
to the hocks, and furnished near the end with long hair forming a terminal 
tuft. Callous pads, on which the animal rests when lying down, and which 
are present at birth, are found on the chest, the elbows, the wrists (commonly 
called the knees), and the knees. The whole form of these animals is far from 
beautiful, while the head is ugly in the extreme; and this want of bodily 
beauty is accompanied by a viciousness of temper and general stupidity of 
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