THE SAVAGE WORLD 
57 i 
parched lips of its owner and thus preserve his reason, if not his very life. But 
furthermore, the peculiarities of its structure enable the cavtel to contend, to the 
best advantage, against fierce winds and clouds of sand, while endowing it 
with the utmost vigor and the greatest swiftness of pace. It is said by the 
mathematician that there is a ratio beyond which mere accident cannot pass; 
that while the realism of DeEoe is such as to lend verisimilitude to the experi¬ 
ences of Robinson Crusoe, yet, though each separate experience may have been 
possible—nay, probable, if you will—the occurrence of such continuous and 
useful coincidences was simply impossible. Therefore must we not conclude that 
when we find in the camel so many and such manifest adaptations to the life 
which it must lead, that instead of blind accident, the only reasonable cause must 
have been the wisdom of the Almighty, even though it be believed by many 
that he chose to work by means of “ natural selection ” and “ evolution ” instead 
CAPTURING A MONSTER HIPPOPOTAMUS. 
of by a special and instantaneous exercise of his omnipotence ? It is not 
miraculous that an All-Wise and All-Powerful Being should achieve a success 
not even conceivable by a merely finite mind ; but it would indeed be more 
miraculous than a miracle—more mysterious than a mystery—if a blind force, 
acting without purpose and without direction, should accomplish, not a single 
effect, but a continuous and harmonious arrangement and adaptation of organs. 
The earners strength enables it to carry, without fatigue, a burden of from six 
hundred to a thousand pounds; its swiftness and power of endurance enable it 
to pass over, in a single day, from thirty to ninety miles; and both this 
carrying-power and this ability to conquer time and distance are absolutely 
essential alike to the camel , when in its wild state, and to the human inhabi- 
