But these properties are improved to a great extent, by the mode in which the camel is reared. At the ear liest period, the legs are folded under the body, in which position it is constrained to remain. Its back is covered with a carpet, weighed down by a quantity of stones gra dually augmented : it receives a scanty portion of food : it is rarely supplied with water ; and, in this manner, is regularly brought up in a system of privation. When the time of trial has elapsed, and it is broke into subser vience, it kneels at the command of the muster, who either mounts it himself, or loads it with a heavy burden; nnd, trusting. to its strength, and the privations it can nuffer, he to t erse the tr. ckiess drsc:t.
A strong camel is able to carry 10)0 pounds, and some are laden with 1500, for short journeys, or 10 escape the tribute on single burdens. The usual weight in long expeditions is, from 500 to 800 pounds, so disposed, that half the weight hangs on each side, and it is different according- to the species employed. Yet ui,der such a heavy load, though care be taken to feed a camel before the outset in proportion to the fatigue to be supported, it is afterwards sustained on an inconsiderable quantity of beans, or a few small balls of barley meal daily, thrown on the ground when it halts. Whole days, however, may elapse, without the animal tasting water, or being injured by the want of it. Travellers frequently speak al having experienced this in long marches. Ta‘eritier occupied 65 days in crossing the great desert, and nine of these once intervened without finding water. Leo Africanus maintained, that camels could resist fifteen days complete privation of it without prejudice, a fact which receives confirmation from the recent observa tions of Dr Russel.—The camels of a caravan, from Bus sorah to Aleppo, he observes, subsisted the like space of time without water ; which was reckoned an extraor dinary circumstance, and nothing of this kind was recol lected by the natives. But we must not suppose, that these animals are insensible of thirst : for, after long pri vation, they drink with such avidity that the quantity swallowed often proves fatal : and it is related of a cara van to Mecca, which had endured great extremities for want of water, that the camels set off at full speed, when they became sensible of its presence, and rushing furi ously into a pool, drank so immoderately, that many died on the spot. It is said, that they can distinguish the pre sence or water at the distance of two or three miles.
Notwithstanding the camel can resist such long priva tions, yet these have their limits, and protracted absti nence cannot fail to prove destructive. Of this a me lancholy example happened in the year 1805, when a caravan, in its progress across a desert, was disappoint ed of finding it spring at the usual place. On this occa sion no less than 1800 camels and 2000 persons perished of thirst.
Physiologists, in accounting for the peculiar property of the camel, in resisting the want of water, have sup posed that it is prolided with an additional stomach of particular configuration, to retain what is imbibed. M. Datffienton, in dissecting a camel which was dead ten (Jays, and had been carried fifty miles, found a quantity of clean insipid water in the deep cells of one of the sto machs : and it is well established, that in situations of urgent necessity, travellers have killed their camels to obtain the water contained in them. One of the Arabian historians, in recording the sufferings of Mahomers ar my in an expedition against the Greeks, states that this alternative was resorted to: and, more recently, a simi lar fact is mentioned by Mr Bruce. Two of the camels, that would not rise after an exhausting march, were killed, and about four gallons of water, of a bluish tint, vapid, and void of taste or smell, were taken from the stomach of each. Nevertheless, it does not appear that there is a particular reservoir for the purpose; and there is reason to think that the same purpose is fulfilled by the singular structure of the second stomach. Being composed of numerous cells, several inches deep, the orifices of which are apparently susceptible of muscular contraction, it is conjectured, that when the animal drinks, it ha, the power of dire cling the water into these cells, instead of allowing it.; pa. ,sage into the lirst sto mach. But it will he received bete win n these arc full ; and, in this inaluier, a quantity of water may be kept parate from the food. from the treetere of the second stomach, it neither receives 10(;d in the first instance, nor does it afterward, pass into ifs The orifice of the cells composing it arc so constru. ted, as to pre vent the entrance of solid food into them.—That the na tural repugnance at drinking v;a'er from the Stomach of an animal may be conquered it is diffie tilt to believe, when we arc told, that on occasions of scarcity, above an hundred guineas have In en given for a single draught.