366 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
sentative of the camel in that country, but it is like 
the alpaca, a small animal without any hump, and 
in noways resembling the camel in its habits. 
There is no domestic animal that would so easily 
accommodate itself to the change to a wild state as 
the camel, should it be lost through straying in 
search of food, or through the destruction of its 
owner. 
It will eat almost anything in the shape of grass 
or bush. Nothing is too coarse or prickly for its 
impenetrable mouth and tongue. 
A couple of years ago a travelling menagerie 
camped near my home in South Devon, and the 
camels were turned out to graze in a meadow hired 
for the occasion. Like most Devonian fields, the 
grass was full of vigorous thistles. I knew what 
the camels would do; I therefore watched them. 
They cleared the field of thistles in preference to 
the herbage. 
A camel that has been lost would discover food 
of some kind upon the barren surface of most 
deserts ; and should it be within reach of water, it 
would resign itself immediately to its new con¬ 
ditions. 
If the camel is not required to labour, it will 
exist upon very little, but that “little” must be 
provided. 
It appears to be a generally accepted belief 
that the camel, because it has been poetically termed 
the “ship of the desert,” requires neither sleep, 
nor food, nor water ; that it will carry any weight; 
