Photo by Charles Knight] [Aldershot.
ARABIAN CAMEL.
This individual belongs to the heavy breed employed for carrying merchandise and baggage.
The three-chambered stomach is remarkable because the chamber known as the "paunch" lodges in its walls a large collection of "water-cells," in which can be stored as much as a gallon and a half of water. This faculty of storing water is invaluable to an animal which has often to subsist for days on absolutely waterless deserts.
Note the slit-like nostrils in the illustration of the Bactrian Camel on [page 306]. These can be closed at the will of the animal, a useful precaution against the entrance of sand during the violent sand-storms which often arise in the desert.
The True Camels are distinguished by the possession of a hump or humps: there are never more than two. It is in these humps that the camel was popularly supposed to store water; in reality they are huge masses of fat, serving as a reserve store of food. The accumulation of fat for this purpose is a common feature amongst the Mammalia. Most animals which hibernate, or lay up and sleep during the winter, store up fat; but, except in the camel, it is distributed more or less evenly over the body. With hard work or bad feeding the camel's hump dwindles almost to nothing. When on the eve of a long journey, the Arab looks anxiously to the state of this hump, for on the size of this depends the animal's condition and ability to undertake the march.
Photo by York & Son] [Notting Hill.
A CAMEL.
A half-breed between the Arabian and Bactrian species.