54 
comes from the warmer climate of Arabia, and is lighter and 
more fleet of foot. They are much used in the sandy deserts 
of Arabia and northern Africa—nature having specially fitted 
their feet, like those of the ostrich, to the loose soil on which 
they walk, and also having provided them with a means of 
traveling for several days without requiring a fresh supply of 
water, part of the walls of the stomach supporting a double 
tissue, filled with cells, which absorb from the stomach a 
quantity of water sufficient to remain for some days as a reser¬ 
voir, from which the necessities of the animal may be sup¬ 
plied. A number of camels were imported by the United States 
Government, some years ago, with the idea of making them 
available in military operations in the west; but owing to the 
stony nature of much of the soil, for which their feet are not 
adapted, the experiment was not altogether successful. Those 
in the Garden are descended from this imported stock. 
Fossil remains of members of the Camelida have been 
found in the United States, thus proving that they were once 
indigenous to this country. 
The American Elk, or Wapiti (Cervus canadensis ), is 
about the largest of the typical deer, Judge Caton describing 
one, which lived for some time in his park in Illinois, that 
stood sixteen hands high at the withers, and was estimated to 
weigh nine hundred pounds; the average weight, however, 
of a full-grown buck would probably not be over six hundred. 
The Wapiti ranged originally all over North America and a 
large part of Canada; forty years ago a few were found in the 
mountains of western Virginia and the wildest parts of New 
York, but civilization has gradually driven it, like the buffalo 
and the Indian, to a few fastnesses in the far west, where 
they yet make a stand before the final extermination which 
seems inevitably to await them. At the present time they 
range in small herds from the upper waters of the Missouri 
through the Yellowstone country westward to the Rocky 
mountains; they are found in fewer numbers south-west, in 
Texas, and a few are still left in the more secluded parts of 
Michigan and Minnesota. They are readily kept r living on 
almost any kind of vegetable food, and are hardy and little 
liable to disease. Save in exceptional cases, and during the 
season of rutting, they are tractable and easily managed. 
The large buck in the collection had his antlers in the velvet 
when he was shipped to the Garden; at this time the horn 
