Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-27
THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.

UNLIKE other ships, this one begin.
By being a very feeble and helpless liz.
tie craft, indeed. For the first week
after its launch on the great sea Of life
it requires much careful watching on
the part Of the owners.
Strange as it may sound, in very
truth baby camel Is every whit as
helpless as human baby. II cannot
stand alone; without help it cannot 50
much us take its own food even; while
its long neck is at first so flexible and
fragile, that unless some one were con-
stantly at hand 10 watch the poor lit
tie creature would run every risk of
dislccating it.
Those who have closely observed
camel nature tell us it is never known
to play or frolic like lambs or colts, or
like most young creatures of the earth.
in fact; but that, in its babyhood, it is
as grave and melancholy as in its old
age, born apparently with a deep sense
of its own ugliness, and a mournful
resignation to a long and joyless
career.
When it has reached its third year.
the hump-backed animal is counted old
enough to begin its life of labor. The
trainers then take it in hand. They
teach it to kneel and bear bur
dens, which gradually they make
heavier and heavier, until their charge
is supposed to have TO come to the
full strength of camel maturity. This
is not until it is about eight years old.
If the camel can rise with the load on
its back, this Is proof positive that he
can carry it throughout the journey, al
though it sometimes happens, il the
journey be only a very short one. the
patient beast is loaded so heavily that
it must be helped ontOit feet by means
OF bars and levers. In some places
camels cry out against this excessive
loading in a most piteous and distress
ing manner-the cry resembling that of
a very young child in pain, and being a
most dismal sound to hear; but in other
parts of the world they will bear their
burden, however heavy, without COM
planning.
An ordinary camers load is from
seven to eight hundred pounds. With
this weight on their backs, a train of
camels will cross thirty miles of desert
during a day. Those used to carry dis
patches, having only the light weight
of the dispatch-bearer, of course are ex-
pected to travel much faster, however,
and will easily accomplish two hundred
and forty miles in the same length of
time.
Ungainly, awkward, repulsive look
ing as these creatures are, with their
great projecting harelips and their
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tion of being most priceless treasures
to all those who "dwell in tents in
the vast sandy plains of Egypt, Arabia
and Tartary.
Their stOmachs are so formed by Ma
ture that they are capable of being con-
verted into a set of water tanks, a num-
Der of small cells filled with the purest
water being fastened to the sides of
each, and when all food fails, it makes
little difference to a camel or dromedary
at least for time.
Their humps are composed of a fatty
substance Day by day the hump di-
minishes, and the fat is absorbed into
the animals system, furnishing
ment until food is forthcoming.
Thus, with these stores of water and
fuel on board, the "ship" can go on
for fortnight, or even a month, abso-
mtely without eating or drinking. while
things that other creatures-unless,
perhaps, it be some bird of the ost-igh
tribe-would never dream of touching,
will furnish forth a smptuous meal for
camel. of a handful of thorns and
brieTs he can make an excellent break
fast, and believe he will not disdain
anything apparently so attempting as
a bit of dry wood.
Provided that at certain periods of
the year a short holiday is allowed the
camel for pasturing, quite at its leisure,
to recruit its strength and fill that
store-house on its back with fuel, it will
serve its master, on such meager fare as
1 have mentioned, for full fifty years.
Still, all work and no play is as bad for
camels as it is for boys.
Even with plenty of fuel on board, the
desert-ship owners are wise enough not
to impose too long journeys upon their
heavily-laden fleets.
A camel's foot is of peculiar fOrma-
ton. 1t is wide-spreading, and is pro-
vided with heshy pads or cushions; and,
if after certain march rest were not
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pads, the flesh become bare, bringing
consequences direful, indeed. Probably
the suffering creature would kneel
down, fold its long legs under its body,
and, stretching out its long neck on the
ground, calmly announce in camel
language that it would go no further.
1t is no use whatever to try to make a
camel go against his will.
If it once refuses, you have but two
ways open TO you: yOu may quietly lie
down beside it until it is ready 10 move,
or you may abandon it forever. Other
course there is none.
1t is a curious fact that, notwithstand-
ing the soitness of the camers foot, it
can walk over the sharpest stones, OF
thorns, or roots of trees, without the
least danger of wounding itself, and
that what this strange beast most breads
is wet and marshy ground.
We read that "the instant it places
its feet upon anything like mud, it slips
and slides, and generally, after stag
gering about like a drunken man, falls
heavily on its side.n