and tender shrubs.

ry

It has been repeatedly asserted that the female camel is very delicate when with young, and that an alarm, or slight accident, will cause a miscarriage. Lieutenant Porter sets the stodown as one of the innumerable fables about camels related by travelers who, merely passing through Camel-land, acquire absurd notions concerning the animal, its constitution and habits. With all the tumbling and tossing his camelpassengers experienced on the voyage from the Levant to Texas, to say nothing of the terrible fright they had in embarking, no accident occurred among the six or eight pregnant females of the number-all were happily "assisted" by Lieutenant Porter and his crew in a series of splendid obstetrical successes, one of which has an especial interest for patriotic American read

ers.

When the Supply was opposite Tunis, a third female showed signals of approaching maternity; whereupon Lieutenant Porter assumed the responsible office of superintending-midwife, a Bedouin attendant officiating as practitioner. No force was used, but nature for once allowed to have her own way. The result was, that the lady was soon in a well-as-can-be-expected condition, and a fine child stood on its legs and bellowed lustily within an hour. It was then presented to the mother, who, to the surprise of Turks and Arabs, testified a lively affection for it. The truth was, she was not in this instance shocked by the unsightly bunch of blankets with which young camel-mothers are usually disgusted, and with which the babies are so effectually disguised that their own dear mothers do not recognize them. In two hours from its birth this youngster was tugging bravely at what Mr. Micawber would call "the fount." After a hearty meal its joints were rubbed, and it was made to stand up every hour; in four days it toddled cunningly among the camels. In the course of a week it frisked about the deck with all the grace and animal spirits of a lambkin, and generously permitted "Uncle Sam," the young ruffian with the Pehlevan propensities before alluded to, to share its natural grog, that precocious brat having discovered that the "young person with the baby" had a superabundance of milk; nor did that amiable camel demur. On board the Supply the young camels sucked indiscriminately among the nursing mothers, nor was it an unusual spectacle to see three pulling at the same flask at once.

When the young camels are two or three years old their education begins. At first a carpet is strapped upon their backs, then a light saddle, and finally the heavy pack. From five years old to ten the camel is in the enjoyment of his full vigor; then his strength remains stationary for a few years more, after which he begins to decline; and at seventeen he is old; but he often lasts and travels with the pack till his twenty-fifth year.

The hump, the peculiar "rig" of the desert

connection with the "ship's" ability to carry its own supply of water for several days, is an inspiring example of the provident adaptation of animals to their native climate and soil. Composed of gelatinous fat, the hump contributes a stock of provision that, by reabsorption, nourishes the animal, when the nature of the country, or other unfortunate contingency, deprives it of a supply of food proportionate to its exertions. Stored thus with water and with food, to meet for several days, should necessity or misfortune compel it, the exigencies of any arid and barren country, the camel has been rightly styled the "merchant-ship of the desert." So well is the use of the hump understood in the East, that the condition of the animal after a long and trying journey is measured by it. It is not uncommon to see camels come in from such expeditions with backs almost straight, showing but little, if any, hump. Indeed, the condition of the animal is, throughout Camel-land, invariably denoted by the development of this singular excrescence.

Beyond its office as a fodder-server the hump does not appear to be intimately connected with the vitality of the camel; for Linant Bey repeatedly opened the humps of his dromedaries with a sharp knife, when, from high feeding, they had become so plump as to interfere with adaptation of the saddle, and removed large portions of the fat, without in any manner injuring the animal, or disturbing its general health.

Care is always observed to protect the hump from continued pressure. The saddle is constructed so as to inclose, not rest upon it; and in the pad of the Zembourek's gun-carriage an orifice is left through which it protrudes. When on a journey of extraordinary hardships a caravan has suffered great privation, the Arabs are accustomed to say the camels have lived on their humps. In a case of famine the hump disappears first, then the fat of the belly, and lastly the flesh of the limbs. When the animal has arrived at the last of these stages it must surely die.

The camel's foot is shod with a thick callosity, by some said to be true horn-a provision which enables it to move with comfort over sand, gravel, and stones. Provided with a shoe of hide, armed with iron on the under side, and strapped to the fetlock-joint—the invention of a Persian vizier-it traverses rocks, volcanic débris, ice, and snow, without difficulty. In wet, clayey, and muddy soils the camel moves with embarrassment. It is then apt to slide and slip, without the ability to recover itself quickly; and is often, it is said, split up by the straddling of its hind-legs in falling; for this there is no remedy-the camel so crippled must be killed. It is always driven with great caution over such dangerous places, and the fatal accident is sometimes prevented by hoppling above the gamble-joint.

The camel, as is well known, is taught to

easily slips thus on clayey soil, especially just after a rain. Should he break a leg in such a fall, he must be killed at once. But dead, he is still precious.

His flesh has the flavor of good beef-indeed, when young and tender, it is even more agreeable. So near is the resemblance, that the Mussulman servants of as yet unorientalized Europeans have a trick of "shaving" their masters by foisting camel's flesh upon them in lieu of beef, and pocketing the difference of price. On the table of the Shah of Persia camel's flesh is, par excellence, the royal dish, by peculiar favor of the Prophet, to whom it is sacred. Dried and salted, it serves to provision the outwardbound caravans.

The milk of the camel is pleasant and nourishing, and not to be readily distinguished from cow's milk, when mixed with coffee. All the nomads have a voracious fondness for it, and the Arabs feed it to their favorite stallions.

The hair is long on the camel's hump, on the lower jaw, along the line of the neck, and on the joints of the legs. It sheds in the spring. Sometimes it is sheared-one man clipping the hair with a sharp knife, another gathering it into a bag as it falls. The Arabs twist it in turbans, and in Persia it is woven, with wool, into carpets, tents, and sacks. The camels'hair shawls, so much prized by western ladies, are not of the camel's bestowing-its hair is too coarse for so elegant a material, which is really woven from the very fine hair of a particular species of goat. The camel's skin, made into leather, furnishes good shoes and saddle-covers. And thus it is seen how heavy to the poor Arab, Egyptian, or Turk, is the loss of a camel. His beautiful mare is his greatest blessing; there is no end to her endurance; her usefulness has no match; she supplies his family with milk; she clothes his children with her hair, as fine and warm as the sheep's wool; she carries his produce to market, and is satisfied with nibbling the dried grass she can crop on the roadside; it costs but a trifle to feed her, and she gives her willing service to an age which the cow or horse seldom reach.

If, then, it be asked why-since the camel is so perfect a beast of burden-is it not left to private enterprise to introduce it into the United States, and reap the benefits arising from its valuable services? Mr. Porter has answered the question: Only because the subject is not fully understood and appreciated among us. Our people form their notions of the camel from the diminutive and sickly-looking specimens they see, for a shilling, in menageries: as well might they imagine they beheld the king of beasts in the famished, cowed, and listless brute they see erouching in Driesbach's cages. If some of the specimens brought over by the Supply could be seen by those who have known only the menagerie camel, they would receive new ideas of the ship of the desert.

Among the number was a male Bactrian from Persia. This powerful animal, though a native VOL. XV.-No. 89.-Pr

of Northern Asia, is found on the confines of Persia, in the Kurdistan country, and is brought in yearly to the southwestern part of Asia Minor, to cross with the female Arabian camel or awana. The connection between the Bactrian male and the awana produces a cross called tuilu, large numbers of which are to be found throughout Asia Minor; and numerous caravans of them go annually from Smyrna to Persia and the northeastern regions of Asia Minor, carrying immense loads.

The cross, or tuilu, is a hybrid, and if it does produce at all, the get is small and very inferior, being scarely worth five dollars. The one brought over in the Supply did not compare with many of his family to be found in Asia Minor; but Lieutenant Porter was forced to consult the height of his decks, which were but seven feet five inches between the planks-in fact, to accommodate one of the Bactrians, he was compelled to cut away a portion of the deck to relieve the animal's hump from pressure. tuilu was rutting at the time he was purchased, and, of course, was very thin; he measured, however, seven feet four inches in height, ten feet two inches in length, and eight feet ten inches around the body. When in fair order, he would weigh over two thousand pounds.

This

A tuilu will carry twelve hundred English pounds, and travel with his burden eighteen miles a day for many days. He will eat on the journey one dough-ball of four pounds once a day, with what herbage he may find at his resting-places. The maya, or female issue of the Bactrian and Arabian, is also very powerful, but can not carry so heavy weights as the tuilu. As for the capability of the tailu to stand the climate of Texas, it is well known that the Kurdistan mountains, Akabzik, Mount Ararat, and the mountain from Erzroum to Tabris, are ali covered with deep snow till late in the spring, and large caravans of tuilus are constantly passing over them.

Mr. Porter advises the importation of young camels of one or two years old. These, when landed in Texas, could be trained either as burden or riding camels. Any young camel can be trained as a dromedary; though less swift than the Nomanieh or Bicharieh of the desert, they would exhibit an endurance of days and weeks impossible to the best breed of horses; and while the latter would be "blown" after a journey of a hundred miles, which he would require three days to perform, the dromedary of common stock would be making its sixty miles a day in any weather, and over the worst roads. They require no shoeing nor any repairing of harness, their gear being of the simplest description. They will carry two or three hundred pounds of baggage besides the rider. When they come up with an enemy, they will lie down, and form a rampart with their bodies, and are not, like horses, subject to stampede. Thus, a corps of mounted dromedaries might be formed that would soon drive every hostile Indian out of the country.