Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1892-09-16
THE WILD CAMEL.
An Interesting and Little Known Animal
OF the Central Asian Deserts.


An Interesting and Little Known Animal
Of the Central Asian Deserts
As far back as the fifteenth century,
writers on Asia told of vague rumors
that wild camels existed in the great
Cobb wastes of the central part of the
continent The existence of the wild
| camel, however, was never proven to the
western world until within the past
| fifty years. Ten or twelve years ago
Gen. Prejevalsky brought back to the
museums of Russia number of shins
of this animal. 1t is found to abound
| in very considerable numbers in the
| western part of Chinese Turkcstan, and
! the fact that the world has known so
little of it is due to the scarcity of white
explorers in that region until quite re-
Gently and to the wildness OF the ami
NAL, which renders it very difficult OF
approach. During the expedition OF
Mr.. Bonvalot and Prince Henry Of Or
leans the adventuresome son of the duke
of Chartres, 1SS9-90, Prince Henry
collected In the region of Lob Nor quite
number of facts with regard to
this interesting animal. The question
whether the wild camel is the parent
stock of the domesticatcd animal, oil
whether, on the contrary, he is de-
scendant of the tame camel is not yet
settled, and perhaps it never will be,
Instances have occurred in Spain and
quite recently in Guyana of camels es'
Gaping from their masters and in the
course of years becoming very wild.
The natives of Lob Nor told Prince
Henry that wild camels are found about
six days to the north of Lob Lake. In
the summer. they go up into the noun
tains, but they always return to the
same places there being certain dis
tricts to which they are accustomed
They wander about the desert feeding
on. seanty herbagein troops of fifteer
or sixteen, all sof them females except
one male, which becomes The undis
puted lord Of his hereinafter terrific
!. combatss with other males. The fc
! males have two young every three
j cars, and the males protect them unit
/ fbcy.are old enough to he 'weaned ant
10 depend upon what the desert affords
for their food. '@'t1 "'~
1t is very fatiguing and difficult to gc'
Iicar them. The only way in which
They are hunted is to hide near a pont
On whose brink traces of wild camel'
4 awe been discovered Then when the
animals comes to drink, the hunter
concealed in the reeds picks out a goot
specimen and blazes away with hi'
.ingle-barrelled gun. Unless he is ,
good shot he will lose his prize, for h,
has no time to get second shot, and /
the camel is only wounded it will make
OF with its companions and the hunte,
will never get near it again. While
rrince Henry was at Lob Nor three
young men who had gone out to hun
wild camels returned from the chase
They had seen great many camels
hut had only killed two. They had Gu
the skins up into rectangular. piece
ready to be worked up into their manu-
iactures. H,
The best season for the sport is il
winter for nearly everywhere the wa
ter is then frozen over SO thatthe place
where the camcls come to drink ar
very few and the hunter is pretty sur
to find them. The natives believe thes
camcls not descended from domesticate'
animals. Our fathers and tradition,
hey said to Prince Henry, ''rcprescu
them as always wild. Moreover, dc
mesticated camel can not do withou
man but follows him. Every domesti
animal is descended from wild ones"
When the chase for wild camels is sue
cessful, it is very profitable. The cam
els skin is in great demand for boot
and the hair makes very good cloth
Only rich natives, however, can organ
ize these hunting expeditions, as it
necessary to send several men out, t
forward provisions to them, to furnis
animals to transport them, which some
times die, and altogether considerabl
risk is incurred. N. Y. Sun.