The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-13
SNOW CAMELS OF SIBERIA.
AN ANIMAL WHICH WOULD DE
ADAPTED TO THE KLONDIKE.

They Are Much bStteE thhh "Sih-
deer as Draft Animals, and Are as
Indifferent 10 Cold as 40 Thirst.
They Are Numerous and Cheap.
From the London Spectator.
The Times of Tuesday last contains an
interesting appreciation" of an unfamiliar
animal by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck the pro-
prietor Of the Thierpark at Hamburg and
the greatest importer of wild animals both
into Europe and America. 1.-THE best ami
NAL for the KlondilSe climate" he writes,
lis the big Siberian camel. These camels
transport all merchandise from China to
Russia, and can stand Siberian cold as well
as the greatest heat. They never need
shelter, and sleep out in the deep snow.
They can carry from five to six hundred
weight, and also go in harness and pull
as much as big horse. They can cross
mountains as well as level country AS for
the difficulty of procuring them, there is
none. can deliver as many as may be
wanted for f40 apiece in London or Grimsby
or $50, duty paid, in New York" The two
bumped Bactrian camel, of which Mr.. Ha-
genbeck speaks, is the only beast of bur-
den. not excepting the reindeer, of which
Englishmen have absolutely no practical
experience 1t was not procurable for the
Afghan wars, even the native Afghan cam
ell being a descendant of the Southern
breed which has migrated to the hills,
while the snow camels keep north of the
Central Asian line. The Russians are, in
fact, the only Europeans who are ac-
quainted with the universal beast of trans
port of Northern Asia, while in Europe it.
self it has not been seen since the revolt
of the Tartars in the reign of the Empress
Catharne
In that memorable and blood-stained ex-
odus when the Tartars fed from the banks
of the Volga to the great wall of China,
their herds of snow camels alone saved the
remnant of the people; and when, after
five months, the flying horde, reduced from
100000 to 100000 souls, together with the
pushing Bashkirs, plunged into the waters
of the lake of Tengis. like a host of luna
tics pursued by host of fiends, they
were still riding on the cames on which
they had started in the SHOWS of winter
and crossed the ice of the Russian rivers.
COX, COW, horse, mule, ass, sheep or goat,
not one survived" writes De Quincy,
only the camels. These arid and adjust
creatures, looking like the mummies of
some antediluvian animals, without the af-
fections or sensibilities of flesh and blood
these only lifted their speaking eyes to
the eastern heavens, and had to-all appear
ance come out of this long tempest of trial
unscathed and hardly diminished" These
"innumerable camels" were all of the Bac-
tran breed, and evidence of the extremes
of cold and heat endured in this enterprise
of the Kalmucks may be found in the fact
that during the beginning stages of the
flight circles OF men, women and children
were found frozen stiff round the camp
fires in the morning, while in the last stage
the horde passed for ten days through a
waterless desert with only an eight days
supply, and yet arrived without sensible
loss of these creatures on the shore of the
Chinese lake.
The constant references 10 the Bactrian
camels made by De Quincy, and his care
show his appreciation of the part they
played But I'm the end he Is still under
the dominion of the accepted opinion about
camels in general. They are arid and
adust'-creatures OF the sand and the hot
desert, rather than of the mountain and
the cold desert or steppe, and the South
Siberian SHOWS. II is this distinction of
habit and habitat which gives novelty 10
Mr.. Hagenbeck's letter in the Times
l
and the Hindu-Khoosh not only separates
the two species with a completeness not
seen in the case of any other breed or
domestcated animal. but has relegated
one solely to the use of the yellow men
and the other to the service of the black
or brown men. The one-humped camel of
the South has migrated under domestca-
ton into the Afghan hills there IL has de-
veloped a thick coat of hair and a power
of climbing, but neither the sturdiness nor
the cold-resisting powers of the Bactrlan
species. From Afghanstan the southern
camel has followed the trade routes into
Turkestan. There. too II has been accli-
matized but II Is not the indigenous ami
NAL, and cannot adapt itself to the ex-
treme cold of South Siberia or the trade
route from east TO west On the other
hand,ethe love of the Siberian camel for
cold and the inhospitable steppes is even
more strongly marked than that Of the
Southern species for the lands of sun and
heat. II makes no Southern invasion Of
the Indian plain. and such car
avans as do penetrate to the Indus
valley come through Afghanistan in the
cold season and return before The sum
mer. The Southern species, with It's in
difference 70 thirst and heat makes the
stronger appeal to the imagination But
the camel Of the North, which can endure
not only thirst, but freezing cold. long
spells of hunger, and bed of snow, is
not the stronger, but the better equipped |
species. Before the summer heat il sheds |
It's coat. but by September II grows gar
ment of fur almost as thick as a buffalo |
robe and equally cold-resisting. 1t Is far |
more strongly built than the Southern