The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1898-06-07
SIBERIAN SNOW CAMEIS.
An UNFAMILIAR ANIMAL ADAPTED
FOR USE IN THE kLoNDlKe.

run USE IN ths kkONDIkE.
Much Better Than the Reindeer-It Is ns
Indifferent to Cold as to Thirst-Sheds
lite Fur Coat IN Summer and Needs
Little to Est-It survives Everything.
Carl Hagenbeck, the proprietor
OF the Thierpsrk at Hamburg aud the
greatest importer Of fild snimals both
into Europe aud America. says '"Fhe
best animal for the Klondike climate
is the big Siberian camel. These camels
transport all merchandise from China to
Russia, and can stand Siberian cold as
we'll as the greatest heat: They never
need shelter, and sleep out in the deep
snow. They can carry from five to
six hundredweight, aud also 60 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. I can deliver as many as may
be wanted for $500 apiece in London
or Grimsby, or $500, duty paid,
in New York" The two-humpe ed
Bactriau camel, Of which Mr.. Hagen
beck speaks, is the only beast Of
burden, not excepting the reindeer, Of
which Englishmen have absolutely NO
practical experience. 1t was not pro-
durable for the Afghan wars, even the
native Afghan camel being descend
ant of the southern breed which has
migrated to the hills, while the snow
camel keeps north of the Central
Asian line. The Russians are, in
fact, the only Europeans who are &C
quainted with this universal beast of
transport OF Northern Asia, while III
Europe itself 1t has not been seen
since the revolt of the Tartar s; in the
reign of the Empress Catharine.
In that memorable aud bloodstained
exodus, 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 peo-
pie; aud when, after five months, the
flying horde, reduced from 600, 900 to
$50, 900 souls. together with the pur-
suing Bashkirs, plunged into the
waters of the Lake Of Tengis, "like a
host of luuatics pursued by host of
tiends." they were still riding on the
camels on which they had started in
the SHOWS of winter and crossed the
ice of the Russian rivers: FOX; cow.
horse, mule, ass; sheep; or goat, not
one survived" writes De Quincy,
"only the camels. These arid and
adjust creatures, looking like the num-
mics of some antediluvian animals,
without the affections or sensibilities
of flesh and blood-these only lifted
their speaking eyes to the Eastern
heavens, and had to all appearance
come out of this long tempest of trial
unscathed and hardly diminished.
These 'iDnumerable camels" were all
of the Bactrian breed, and evidence of
the extremes of cold and heat endured
in this enterprise of the Kalmucksmay
be found in the fact that during the
beginning stages of the fight circles
OF men, women, aud children were
found frozen stiff round the campfires
in the morning, while in the last stage
the horde passed for ten days through
waterless desert with only an eight
days supply, aud yet arrived with
out sensible loss" of these creatures
on the shore of the Chinese lake.
The constant references to the Bac-
trian camels made by DE Quincy. and
his careful repetition of their dis
tinctive name, show his appreciation
of the. part they played. But in the
end lie is still. under the dominion of
the accepted opinion about camels in
general. They are "arid and ADJUST
creatures of the sand and the hot
desert, rather than of the mountain
and the cold desert or steppe, and the
South Siberian SHOWS. 1t is this dis
tinction OF habit and habitat which
gives novelty to Mr.. Hagenbeck's
letter. The physical barrieri of the
Himdlayas and the Hindu Khoosh not
only separates the two species with a
completeness not seen in the case of
any other breed Of domesticated ami.
NAL, but has relegated one solely to
| the use of the yellow men and the
| other to tho service of the black or
brown men. The one-humped camel
OF the South has migrated under do.
mestication into the Afghan hills;
there 1t has developed thick coat OF
hair and a power of climbing, but
| neither the sturdiness nor the cold
1 BO"OAo VI tllC DhcNllhu kDB-
cies. From Afghanistian the Southern
camel has followed the trade routes
into TurkestaD. There, too, it has
acclimatized; but it is not the in
digenous animal, and cannot adapt it.
self to the extreme cold of South
Siberia or the trade ute from east
TO west. On the 9th, hand, the love
OF the Siberian camel Tor cold and the
unacceptable steppes is even more
strongly marked than that of the
southern species for the lands of sun
and heat II makes no southern in
yasiou Of the Indian plain, and such
caravans as do penetrate to the Indus
Valley come through Afghanistan in
the cold season aud return before the
simmer. The southern species, with
its Indifference TO thirst and heat.
makes the stronger appeal to tho im-
aSination. 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 only
the stronger, but the better equipped
species. Before the summer heat IL
sheds its coat, but 10y September il
grows n garment Of fur almost rs thick
as buffalo robe and equally cold re-
sisting. IL Is far more strongly built