The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-08-13
Travelling Power of the Camel.

hiiy WuCu W
capital to accomplish the destruction o
tho Mameukes, rode without chan ginl
his camel, from Suez to Cairo, a dis
tance Of cighty.four miles in twelve
hours. A French officer in the service
Of Pacba, repeated the same feat in thir
teen hours, and two gentlemen of my ac
qpaiutance have performed it in less
than seventeen. Laborde travelled the
distance in tie same time, and after.
wards rode the same dromedary from q
point opposite Cairo to Alexandria, dis.
tance of about one hundred and fifty
miles, in thirty four hours But the most
extraordinary well-authenticatcd per-
formance of the dromedary is that re-
corded by tho accurate Burckhardt in
his Travels. The owner of fine dromc-
dary laid a wager that he would ride the
animal from Esneb to Keneh, and back,
a distance of one hundred and twenty.
i've miles, between sun and sun. He ac.
complishcd one hundred and fifteen miles.
occupying twenty minutes in crossing and
re'crossiDg the Nile by forry, in eleven
hours, and then gave up the wager.
Bdrckhardt thinks this dromedary would
have travelled one hundred and eighty
or two hundred miles in twcnty-four
hours without serious injury The valu.
able paper extracted from the notes of
General Harlan, and printed in the U.
s. Patent Office Report of 1853, Agri.
culture,6I, states that the ordinary days
journey of the dromedary of Cabut is
sixty miles, but that picked animals will
travel one hundred miles day for seve.
raj days in succession, their greatest
speed being about ten miles an hour.
Captain Lyon affirns that the mahari of
the Sahara will travel many successive
hours at the rate of nine miles an hour.
The Syrian dcloul goes in five days from
Bagdad to Sokhne. distance which tho
loaded caravans require twonty.one days
to perform, or from the same city to A
leppo in seven, the caravans generally
take twenty-five. Couriers have ridden,
without change of dromedary, from Cal
ro to Mecca, in eighteen days, while the
ordinary camels seldoh accomplish the
journey in less than forty-fve. Layard
gives several instances of apparently re-
performances, but as the dis
tnnccs are not stated, it is not easy to
them with those recorded by
other authors
A late and apparently credible writer
says 81 knew a camel.driver wEo had
bought dromedary belonging to sher.
iff of Mecca, lately deceased at Cairo.
This animal often made the round trip
between that city and Suez, going and
returning in twenty-four hours, thus
travelling distance of sixty leagues in
a single day." The performance of the
dromedary is rather understaied by the
writer. The actual distance between
Cairo and Suoz is eighty-four English
miles, and the animal must consequently
have accomplished one hundred and six.
ty.eigbt miles in twenty four hours. He
remained four hours at Suez to rest, and
therefore travelled at the rate of eight
miles and fourtenths per hour.
Upon longer journeys, tho daily rate
Of the best dromedaries, though not equal
to these instances, is still extraordinary. |
A French officer of high rank and char.
lcter in tho Egyptian service, assured me
hat he bad ridden favorite dromedary
ninety miles in single day,and five hun.
1red miles in ten. Mails have been car
ried from Bagdad to Damascus, upon the
same animals, four hundred and eighty
swo miles, in seven days and on one oc.
,asion, by means of regular relays, Moh.
smet Ali sent an express to Ibrahim
Pasha, from Cairo to Antioch. Eve hun.
lred and sixty miles, in five days and a
lalf But the most remarkable long
Journey on record is that of Col Cbes-
,ey, of the British army, who rode with
hree companions, and without change of
,amel. from Basrah to Damascus, q dis.
.ancc of nine hundred and sixty miles,in
,incteen days and three or four hours,
'bus averaging fifty miles per day, the
.nimals having no food but such as they
gathered for themselves during the halts
If the party These dromedaries aver.
'ged forty-fve steps minute, with a
epgth of step of six feet five inches, Civ
ng a speed of about three and one. third
niles the hour" Tile Camel" by Geo.
P. Marsh.
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