172 
HABITS OF THE CAMEL. 
[chap. VI. 
times, feeds voraciously when in. abundant pasture, 
always seeking the greenest shrubs. The poison-bush 
becomes a fatal bait. 
The camel is by no means well understood in 
Europe. Far from being the docile and patient animal 
generally described, it is quite the reverse, and the 
males are frequently dangerous. They are exceedingly 
perverse; and are, as before described, excessively 
stupid. For the great deserts they are wonderfully 
adapted, and without them it would be impossible 
to cross certain tracts of country for want of water. 
Exaggerated accounts have been written respecting 
the length of time that a camel can travel without 
drinking. The period that the animal can subsist 
without suffering from thirst depends entirely upon 
the season and the quality of food. Precisely as in 
Europe sheep require but little water when fed upon 
turnips, so does the camel exist almost without drink¬ 
ing during the rainy season when pastured upon succu¬ 
lent and dewy herbage. During the hottest season, 
when green herbage ceases to exist in the countries 
inhabited by camels, they are led to water every alter¬ 
nate day, thus they are supposed to drink once in 
forty-eight hours ; but when upon the march across 
deserts, where no water exists, they are expected to 
carry a load of from five to six hundred pounds, and 
to march twenty-five miles per day, for three days, 
without drinking, but to be watered on the fourth day. 
Thus a camel should drink the evening before the 
start, and he will carry his load one hundred miles 
without the necessity of drinking; not, however, with¬ 
out suffering from thirst. On the third day's march, 
during the hot simoom, the camel should drink if 
possible; but he can endure the fourth day. 
This peculiarity of constitution enables the camel to 
overcome obstacles of nature that would otherwise be 
insurmountable. Not only can he travel over the 
scorching sand of the withering deserts, but he never 
seeks the shade. When released from his burden he 
