Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-02-12
Once Tried In America.

Once Tried In America.
Ono early morning in June, 1873, the
writer saw q kingly Arab entering an
outlying street Of Stout, Egypt, at the
head of q small caravan of camels. His
attendants followed with q firm and self
reliant step and swing which told Of the
wide free life of the desert. The humps
Of the camels were shrunken and covered
by large and loose flaps of skin, showing
the terrible draft a journey of many hun
dred miles had made upon their vitality.
There is q peculiar interest even in seeing
IN Arab chief with his begrimed at
tsndants right from the sands and the
wind storms Of the desert. As a means
,f transportation the camel has been plac.
I'd in region where man would have
been helpless without him. He was no
ioubt the first animal domesticated. We
read of him as q burden bearer in Abra.
hams time, and as constituting the chief
wealth of Job, and find him in use now
n the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algiers.
Tunis, Tripoli, the great Sahara, Egypt
Ind Nubia in Africa, and in Arabia, Per-
lia, CaboOl, Beloochistan, Hindoostan,
nurmah. Thibet. Mongolia, Southern ST.
IBERIA and in Independent Tartary in Asia.
where he endures severe cold; also in the
Crimea and limited district around Con-
Itantinople. The animal has been in use
TOR centuries in Tuscany and its use Is
iow rapidly increasing in Australia, in
which region he is extensively bred. No
animal can supply his place in the coun-
Ties named. Railroads alone will even
maily render his use as common car
:ier unnecessary. The camel is to Asiatic
md the African what the dog is to the
-sGuimaux, the reindeer to the Laplander,
the vessel to the seaman and the locOmo.
i've to the American and European.
The most recent extension of the use Of
he camel is found in Australia. These
inimals were first taken there by the
Burke and Wells party in 1862. Besides
The importations from Asia, there are now
Ieveral breeding stations in Australia.
There are many Afghan and European
:arrying companies there using nothing
,ut camels, conveying passengers and
freight from one part of the interior TO
mother. These camels carry from 400
900 pounds. In some cases Europeans
lave learned to act as camel drivers, but
he Afghans understand and manage
The animals better. The distances made
BY some of the riding camels in Australia
iave been rema arkable. A very fast camel
belonging to Sir Thomas Elder, a heavy
importer of these animals, carried a doc
or and the Afghan rider over 800 miles
n twenty-fOur hours. Camels are now
ised in place of horses by the South Aus
Talian and Queensland police troopers.
10 a burden bearer and roadster the
samel beats the horse in Australia as well
- everywhere else in desert regions.
The CameI's OriRin.
The story of German philosopher who
evolved a camel from his inner con-
iciOusness" is not strictly in harmony
With the requirements Of exact science.
Iwo things have adapted themselves to
The desert, the date palm and the camel,
Ind both are essential to any picture of
I, and one who has seen and used "the
Ihip of the desert in Africa ought to be
Ible to tell of it with some accuracy, for
Is story is full of interest.
Considered historically and geologically,
he camel of the Great Indian, African
Ind Bactrian deserts is not q product
,f the old world, but the earliest evidence
" hi3 ancestors is to be found in Amer
ca, and the new world still contains the
.reater number of species Of the family,
n such as the llama, the alpaca, the
,uanaco and their relatives. The Asiatic
ind African camels are merely the sur
living Oriental members of q family
wholly American in origin, but stranded
n a remote section of the old world, where
hey have survived the competition Of
lever and higher types in virtue of some
pecial adaptations to their peculiar hab-
tat, their desert resisting qualities. Over
ne Eocene and Miocene plains of all the
continents camels and their allies once
.anged in large numbers. They con-
rtitute an undeveloped ungulate form,
which has become extinct through the
ierce competition of higher ruminants
Except in remote parts of the world, like
Africa, Arabia, Southern Asia, portions
If Australia and in the Andes. Camels,
Is a group, antedate the development Of
formed or antiered ruminants, and they
It'll possess in full canine and incisor
eeth, which are partly obsolete or much
Uttered in shape in all the higher and
ater ruminants. The giraffe, too, another
,emnant of an earlier age, shows in his
hort, blunt, skin covered horns, the low!
.st surviving stage of the frontal weapons
low common to the rumi1ants. The un-
,ainly and shambling camel is simply q
pecialized and adapted desert variation
LOu tAC SohAhoh adCcStOX VI lu0 uOE0G,
zig and hippipotamus. The horse is Of
little avail upon q sandy desert. His
!eet sink into the yielding sands and he
quickly tires of travel, while the drome-
larry, with his peculiarly padded sole,
takes a loose. shambling trot and seems
Easily to accomplish a hundred miles q
lay for a week together, bearing q load
equal to the weight Of two riders. On
lie nd rooEa tho al Do 81
Iut on the open, sandy deserts he IL a
master with which no other animal can
compete.
Camels, then. are really surviving speci-
mems Of the raw material from which.
~ natural and sexual selection, the higher
'uminants in diverging lines have been
lowly evolved during innumerable ages.
The hump is an excrescence composed
# gelatinous fat and is, in reality, q stock
If provisions which by reabsorption nour-
shes the animal when deprived Of a sup
ply of food proportionate to Its exertions.
It is not uncommon for camels to come
Dut of this old type the camel IL q modi.
led member, and a peculiarly adapted
lesert offshoot. 1t presents in external
pnfguration and functional peculiari-
ies { remarkable instance Of special
ldaptauon to q restricted environment
The Camers Hump.
ack from an expedition with their back,
llmost straight, showing little II any
lump. for the bony framework Of the ami
mai does not curve or conform to q hump.
writer Of Jingle gives the following
dew of the origin of the hump:
The rain looked near, the sky grew dark,
And all the bea St6 made for the Ark
Except the camel He just stood
AM smiled and said. sBrins on your
Aoodr
And he ambled on. a. you'll remark,
At careless jog towards the Ark.
put when lightning flashed and thunder
crashed,
And the downpouf came amain-
Clumpetyi c1umpi Oh, he rot - hump