CAMEL, a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order liecora of Linnaeus, the principal generic and spe cific characters of which we shall reserve for their pro per place, under MASIMALIA, and here confine ourselves chiefly to the domestic uses to which this animal is con verted.
The camel is one attic larger quadrupeds, being six or seven feet from the ground to the highest part of the back, and it carries the head when erect about nine feet above the plane of its position. The carcase weighs three or four hundred pounds ; but the size and weight are far from alike in all.
Notwithstanding our familiarity with this animal, the different species and varieties are by no means well un cle rstood, w hich produces some inconsistency in a gene ral account of the properties it possesses. There arc two species so distinct, however, that they cannot pos sibly be mistaken ; the one the Bactrian or Tauridan camel, having two bunches on the back, and the other of somewhat smaller size, lighter made, and more ac tive, called the Arabian camel or dromedary. It is this latter only which is most generally alluded to under the name of camel.
Certain authors have described four, which they con ceive distinct species of camels. 1st, The Turkman ca mel, which is larger, stouter, and of a darker colour than the rest. It requires more careful feeding, is less capa ble of resisting excessive heats, and of enduring priva tions, and is more untractable. 2d, The Arab camel, of smaller size, less hairy, and not so dark in colour as the former, and which can endure the want of water. 3d, The dromedary, which some think is a high breed of the Arab camel, with a smaller bunch, more agile, and able to travel three or four times as far in the same time as the others. 4th, The Tauridan or Bactrian camel, with two bunches, belonging to Persia, or the countries. adjacent to the Crimea, and perhaps found on the confines of China, larger than the first, more hairy, and of different colours, between deep brown and dun. It appears that there is considerable variety in the colour of the camel, and that the goods manufactured from its hair are most esteemed, when approaching nearest to white or black.
One principal characteristic of the whole race is the prominence on its back, which is of a fleshy or glandular consistence, but not produced by a curvature of the spine. Zoologists have therefore indulged an hypothe sis, that it was not implanted there by the hand of na ture, but that it originated from the treatment of the animal, and is now transmitted in the breed as a generic character. Admitting that climate, treatment, and acci dental circumstances can have very great influence on the structure and disposition of animals, we cannot agree that such a singular alteration has taken place in the con formation of the camel.
The natural abode of this animal is in the warmer cli mates, and places abounding with sand, where food is scanty, and exposure to long protracted privations are unavoidable ; insomuch that, from the configuration of its foot, difficulty is experienced in treading another soil, and in the richer or more fertile countries where at tempts have been made for its naturalization, it grows feeble, languishes, and dies.
The motion of the camel is unlike that of most other animals; both the feet on the same side are successively raised, and not alternately like those of the horse. Its pace is nalbrally slow, and when accelerated, the rider experiences the most severe jolting, which it requires continued practice to endure.
Properties which are denied to the greater part of quadrupeds are possessed by the camel, and in their full est extent converted to the use of mankind. It is docile, patient of labour, and capable of abstinence in a wonder ful degree ; it can endure scorching heats with impunity ; it feeds on thistles, on the stunted shrubs and withered herbage of the desert, and can pass successive clays in total want of water ; thus seeming as if purposely de vised by nature for the most cheerless and inhospitable regions.