The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-08-27
THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.

THE SHIP OF THE DESERT.
UNLIKE other ships, this one begins
by being very feeble and helpless lit
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. 1t cannot
stand alone; without help it cannot SO
much as 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 to 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 deep sense
of its own ugliness, and mournful
resignation to 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, if the
journey be only a very short one. the
patient beast is loaded so heavily that
it must be helped onto its feet by means
of bars and levers. In some places
camels cry out against this excessive
loading in most piteous and distress
ing manner-the cry resembling that of
a very young child in pain, and being
most dismal sound to hear; but in other
parts of the world they will bear their
burden, however heavy, without COM
planning.
An ordinary camels load is from
seven to eight hundred pounds. With
this weight on their backs, train of
camels will cross thirty miles of desert
during 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
hairy humps, they have the compensa-
ton 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-
verified into set of water tanks, a num-
Der of small cells filed with the purest
water being fastened to the sides of
each, and when all food fails, it makes
little difference to camel or dromedary
at least for time.
Their humps are composed of fatty
substance. Day by day the hump d.
minishes, and the fat is absorbed into
the animals system, furnishingnourish-
ment until food is forthcoming.
Thus, with these stores of water and
fuel on board. the "ship'' can 60 on
for q fortnight. or even month, abso-
lutely without eating or drinking. while
things that other creatures unless,
perhaps, it be some bird of the ostrich
tribe-would never dream of touching,
will furnish forth sumptuous meal for
q camel. Of q handful of thorns and
briers he can make an excellent break
fast, and I believe he will not disdain
anything apparently SO attempting as
a bit of dry wood.
Provided that at certain periods of
the year q short holiday is allowed the
camel for pasturing, quite at its leisure,
to recruit its strength and ill that
store-house ON its back with fuel, it will
serve its master, on such meager fare as
l 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 fuelon board, the
desert-ship owners are wise enough not