The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-03 00:00:00

THE CAMEL IN AMERICA.

In the exploration by Lieut. Beale of a waggon road
from Albuquerue, New Mexico, due west, or nearly Bet
to the Colorado River, the adaptability of camels t°
those arid western regions seems
to have been put to
pretty thorough test. The imported camels, some t°,
in number, besides several dromedaries, were landed
originally at Indianola, Texas, whence, ;fter recruiting
awhile, they were taken to San Antonio, to be employed
in the expedition of Lieut. Beale and that of Capt. PcPe
for sinking artesian wells in the deserts intersected bl
the Rio Pecos. Lieut. Beale left San Antonio on the
25th June, having selected for his expedition 23 caftlele and 3 dromedaries. The camels were laden with a large
portion of the grain necessary for the teams of mlllOl4
Those of them which in their native country bad been
trained to this business were found capable of carrying
1,08010. The expedition took the route from San Au'
t.,D10 to El Pa•o, and thence up the Rio Grande tO
Albuquerque, at some distance west of which the new
explorations were to begin. From San Antonio to Alblim
querque, by this route, the distance is over 1,000 miles
a large part of it through districts very scantily Sur,
plied with either grass or water. It was accompliske4
in 45 days, the train moving at an average rate of
miles an hour, and the camels bearing the journey Per,
fectly well. From Albuquerque the expedition marched
to Zuni, an outlying settlement of New Maxine'
Lieutenant Beale left Zuni on the 28th August, havieg
obtained an escort of troops from Fort Defiance;
situated some 90 miles to the north in the country 0*
the Navajos. His route lay nearly due west, along the
35th parallel of north latitude, and through a region
hitherto almost unknown. As ax as the Little Colorades
the road, though with volcanic ranges of mountains Con'stantly in sight, some of them capped with snow, 1„
";
comparatively level. There were abundant supplies (1`
grass, with
.timber sufifiaeut for fuel, and pl-nty of water.
After crosne
g Little lorado, which was followed for
some days and which has a wide and fertile bottom, with
a fringe of cotton wood along the banks, the expedition
encountered the San Francisco mountain, having on its
eastern elope great forests of pine, and on its western
slope forests of cedar. From the Western foot of this
mountain the country grows more barren, till, near the
banks of the Colorado, it becomes a desert, except the
bottom lands, a few miles in extent. The river hat
was found to be from 200 to 300 yards
wide, flowing e;
the rate of three or four miles an hour, and with 19 feet
of water in the mid channel. It was unobstructed vr
rocks, and was.apparently navigable for large steamer&
The inhabitants of an Indian village found here renre;
seated the river as maintaining the same character as $
Fort Yuma, near its junction with the Gila. Here the
camels were put to a very important test. It is noel.
tively stated by Father Hue, in his travels in Tartaill
and by other writers, that the camel cannot swim,
this alleged defect of theirs had caused Lieutenant Bee"'
a good deal of anxiety. Having !Cached the Colorado
he was determined to settle the question for himself,
The fiist camel brought to the bank refused 0
enter the. river; but another being brought down, tO
the great delight of the whole company, it took the
water freely and swam boldly across. The others, boa
o re behind the other in strings of five, were take°
across in the same way. They not only swam with eat
but in this particular, as in others, they seemed to 0120"
the horses and mules. This seemed to be the -only
remaining test needed to establish the character of the
camel as a beast of burden specially suited for WO
regions. What particularly adapts the camel for use
those regions is not merely their capacity
to endllt
fatigue and to go without water, but the very coarse and
scanty food with which they are content. They eat
they go along whatever they find in their path, bending
their long necks, and throwing their heads into every
narrow crevice of the kooks where grows a cactus or a
clump of grass, or cropping the leaves from the branches
_
of trees without in the least retarding their. pr. grows
In this respect, as in many otters, they have a grey
a ivantage over mules or horse., which require food "
regularly as mail blinselt.—New York n ibune.

Tux DUTY ON SPIRITS.—There has been a narrent
report in quarters likely to be well informed that th,,
°
Government intend to equalise the duty on spirits all
over the three kingdoms. They have long been watching
an opportunity of doing so, and it is only too likely the
present peridd may be considered a favourable one for
making the. attempt.—Dublin Freeman's Journal.
AUSTRALIAN POSTAL COMMUNICATION.—On sorer!l
occasions we have pointed, out the necessity of increase's
p n3tal communication between this c ,untry and our
Australian dependencies, and have done as much as
us lies to secure two, instead of one mail per mouth to
and fro. The rapidly augmenting business intercourl
imperatively demands it; and as this desirable ohjee
can be attained with little additional expense, there
;
Epeciaily as a system of weekly
mails has been eat 3"s
seems no reason why it should be longer withheld, more
jibed betwe m the East Indies and the mother counto
and the Audralisn bags could be conveyed as far i,t°
Ceylon by the same means of transit as those used for tir
East Indian letters. It is, indeed, more than posslbil
that increased poStal accommodation for Australia sousts
prove a source of profit to the Post Office ; but be tul
as it may, it is cl ar that the mercantile relations of these
eel toes are sf that value and moment to Great BritaieS
that every possible facility should be afforded. It i•itreir
met at this present moment there is urgeet necessity for
.
frequent intercourse with our East Indian possessions
hut under ordinary circuinstancee, and in a c°_o3"
Mercial, or even postal sense, there is no rene:a
why the one should enjoy ; heee advantages
sestet
the other I e debarred. We say in a 13''t
Einve, for by a return furnished by the governn%.
authorities, it appears that the number of letters
veyed between the Uoited Kingdornand the East Ina"'
and China was 1 542,257 tluring the twelve months
to
ending D. c. 31, 1856, while the number transmitteder
and fro between the Aretralian colonies and the nwt
country during the it me p.:iriori was 1,467,334, or °ollif
or
64,923 less than those which were received from,
_a
forwarded to our extensive East Indian territories a:,O
our commercial settlements in China. Surely these
statistics which warrant the Australian coloniat% So
0..
pressing the consideration of the question on the
tion of the Home Government,—Mtning J°4l"
Jan. 39.