Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-05-11
The Ship OF the Desert.

"Mr. Earnest Giles has succeeded, with
the aid of camels, in crossing that part OF
Australia between the telegraph line and
Perth. For sixteen days he could obtain
no water The place is hardly suited to
a teetotaler."
The above paragraph from an English
exchange leads us TO inquire into the fate
of the camels imported into this country
some time during the Taylor Fillmore
Administration for the use Of the War De
partment. As the introduction of any
domestic animal in country becomes an
interesting item in the history OF that
country, we may as well, while it is yet
fresh in the memory, record here the first
successful attempt at the acclimation OF
the camel on the North American con-
tinent.
The field editor of this Journal claims to
have been the first to suggest the addition
OF the camel 10 the number of our domes-
ticated animals. In the course of his in
yestigations he became aware of what to
many will seem an extraordinary fact,
that not single one of our domesticated
creatures, not even excepting the honey
bee, was known on the North American
continent prior to its settlement by Euro
peans Az all the animals had been ac-
climated without difficulty, why not add
the camel TO their number? There were
no climate difficulties in the way, be-
cause the geographic range OF this
useful creature extends from the steppes
Of Siberia TO the Cape of Good Hope. The
writer published short essay in the pa
tent Office report, wrote several articles
in the papers of the day, and advocated
the measure personally with influential
people about the Government, until final
ly Mr. Jefferson Davis, then representing
Mississippi in the Senate, introduced a
bill appropriating $4,000 tor the intro
duction of a number of camels Tor the
Quarterniaster's Department of the army.
Government vessel was fitted out ex-
pressly for the purpose, under the superin-
tendence and after under the command of
the late Ira Porter, brother OF the pres
ent gallant Admiral of that name, and
Capt. Harry Wayne and another officer
were detailed to select and purchase the
animals.
The success of the enterprise was ques-
toned at the time by the members Of Con-
gress who voted against the appropriation
and by certain newspapers, on the ground
that the camel could not stand our climate.
Probably their judgment was biased by
the wretched specimens exhibited in our
travelling menageries, which, imported
from the dry climate, are soon attacked
with lung diseases when taken TO
moster atmosphere. They are ignorant,
probably, of the fact that the dromedary,
or camel of Asia, is one OF the hardest Of
all domesticated animals, and that he is as
much at home in the frozen steppes of
Tartary as upon the burning sands of the
African desert. They are not aware of
the fact that camels furnished the chief
means of transportation for the overland
commerce between Moscow, in Russia,
and Pekin, In China.
From the moment our civilization COM
menced TO spread beyond the Mississippi
and reached the great desert at the foot of
the Rocky Mountains, the expediency of
introducing the camel became apparent,
aud was acted upon, as we have already
saic, by the Government The officers
detailed for their purchase, instead OF
going 10 the nearest port in the Medter-
ranean for their cargo, went TO Constan-
tinople and purchased animals bred in
the Crimea and Bactrix countries, with
climate conditions somewhat similar 10
our own, but subjected 10 still greater ex-
tremes of heat and cold. The cargo was
landed In Texas; nor did single one of
the beasts suffer in the slightest degree
from the change. They were more easily
acclimated than horses; they were put to
practical uses, and the present Gen. Beale
made several successful trips with them
across the continent, reporting them TO be
better in every respect for the transporta-
ton of army stores than mules or wagons
and horses. They were increasingly num-
bers, and in time might have become
quite as common as mules and horses,
when the civil war broke out, and they
have been lost sight of.
We have plains as arid as any on which
men and horses have died of thirst-plains
upon which marauding Indians have es-
capped with ease from the vengeance of the
pioneer whites whose homes they had des-
olated; but these savages would have been
subjected long since had we, as we might
have had, that particular race of camels
called the Mehairy," which can travel
ninety miles between snn and sun OH such
diet as would starve a mule, and keep up
the same rate of speed day after day for a
whole week. So mounted, and with
horizon twice or three times as great az
the fugitive Indian could command from
the back OF his fourteen hand pony, il il
evident that once run 10 view, there would
be no escape for the party pursued.