The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-19
HUNTING
CAMELS
American Variety Want
ed for the Cir
Gus.

| TOPEKA Ham, OCl. - ePoAA
lions have begun for camel hunt II
the Southwest The hunt Is scheduled
to occur in November and will be un-
der the direction of Willie Sells, the
Kansas Snowman, a son Of w. Allen
| Sells. who was in charge OF the nrs'
successful hunt for wild camels in the
Tinted states. The elder Sells captur-
ed nineteen wild camels in the deserts
of Arizona in 80, and some Of them
| ara vet alive and on exhibition in ira
yelling menageries.
The present hunt will cover much
the same territory as that traversed by
the hunters of twenty-five years ago,
but the younger Sells expects to push
his search into the deserts of northern
Mexico il he fails to find the animals
in their former haunts. An investiga-
ton made a few weeks ago at the In
stance of Mr.. Sells showed that wild
camels stin exist in Arizona and Mex
leo, but their numbers cannot be esti-
mated.
The only camel breeding farm In
America is to be established in Kans-
as, with the captured Arizona animals
as a nucleus of the herd. For two years
Mr.. Sells has been looking for suit
able place in which to establish
camel and ostrich breeding farm. He
now has selected a tract of 2,140 acres
along the south side of the Arizona
river in Kearney county IN western
Kansas.
The route of the camel hunt has been
agreed upon. The hunters who viii ac-
company the Snowman will leave the
Southern Pacific Railroad at ella Bend
In Maricopa county Ariz. This is the
place the elder Sells left the railroad
twenty-five years ago.
The hunters under the guidance OF
Thomas McClusky, who guided the
other party, win go north and wes.
across the ella River into McMullen's
Valley and the cactus plains. The
other caxnels were found in the cactus
plains but Mr.. Sells is of the opinion
that the animals have moved south
ward in the score of years since an
organized effort has been made to cap
ture them.
If his search in McMullen's Valley
and the cactus plains is without re-
ward, he will again cross the ella and
search south of the Nal Pals Noun
tains 1t was in this neighborhood that
some of the animals were seen recently.
A member of a surveying party work
ing 100 miles south of the Mexico line
also reported to the Snowman that one
of his horse herders saw several of the
animals about sunset one day during
the last summer.
There has been no organized effort
made to find these animals. said Mr..
Sells to-day, "since my father captured
a part of the herd twenty years ago.
He brought nineteen of the animals
here and kept them on his farm east
of Topeka.
'They were the widest creatures
ever saw. They would not eat for sew
eral days and it was almost impossible
to keep them in an enclosure.
MY father experimental for a long
time before he found out how to cap
ture the animals. He tried having the
half-breed Indiands of Arizona rope
them, but a native horse would not
go within 800 yards of one of the villa
camels, and that plan was given up.
MY father then returned to his win
ter quarters here and shipped back to
Arizona a carload of horses accustom-
ed to the sight of camels. The half
breeds on these horses were able to
rope nineteen of the herd. I am going
to take my own horses with me.
ST do not know how many of the
camels there are in Arizona now, but
have heard that there were nearly L.
600 head. I do not believe this, but L
do believe they exist there In sufficient
numbers to make it much less expen-
sive to capture them there than to send
to Asia for them.
1.-THE wild camels there are the de-
scendants of those turned loose by the
Government thirty years ago. The
Government brought the animals into
the country to use them across the
deserts. They were untitled for the
work of climbing the mountains
"a Frenchman then brought in a
bunch of the camels and used then,
with some degree OF success on the
Yuma desert. His business fell away
when Tie FdliTOdu cdLie ana. ne turned
his animals adrift
From these two bands the herd has
grown. For years nobody molested
them. Indians occasionally shot them,
but they are almost too wary for the
ordinary hunter. Their sense of smell
is highly developed and they can see
an enemy great distance.
"one of the greatest obstacles to be
overcome in hunting the carnels is that
caused by lack of food for man and
beast and the entire absence of water
in the neighborhood of their haunts.
The camel can travel a great distance
without food or water and can remain
a long time away from water
"On the other hunt we had to take
water and food along to follow the
camels into their pasture They could
remain two or three days travel from